Given that I work from home (and already save on gas by not being a commuter), I think it is fair enough to generalize this to "office" folks as well. A month ago, I decided to see how much it would save me if I began using responsible power practices "at work". For the sake of a scientific comparison study, I decided to be my usual irresponsible self when it came to the household power.  It was not easy at first, I would forget, sometimes the thought of trekking back upstairs to turn off ONE switch made me cry, but I kept at it and now I have the power bill!  My responsible power practices in my "home office" alone reduced my power bill by 41%. Woo hoo. Good for the environment, good for the pocketbook.

So what did I do? Turned off the monitor on my PC whenever I stepped away, kept the speakers off until I needed to hear something. Same with the laptop. Only used it when I wanted to. Kept the external hard drive unplugged until needed as well. Turned the printer, scanner, copier off until I needed them for something. Unplugged the phone chargers unless they were charging the phone. Unplugged the drippy water fountain on my desk and substituted with a live plant. Kept the blinds open and the lights off, and I could work that way even upto 8 pm or so. Some nights I even shut down my computer (gasp!) I'm sure im forgetting some other small items.. yes, I changed the office bathroom light fixture from a 3 bulb behemoth to a tasteful, single bulb energy efficient one from the recycle center.  

This month I am going to add all my good energy practices to my household usage also. It was hard to keep myself from spilling over this last month - but i wanted to do it that way. I am sure that I can really make a dent in the usage. Plus, I signed up with our power company to have 25% of our electricity come from wind power. I have to pay extra for that, but not too much.

So, while i'm nowhere near becoming Ed Begley, I sure like the idea that I'm doing my bit. So are any of your programs or home offices or households doing energy saving stuff? As a policy? Just individually? Do you know how much you are saving?