We all should all know by now that electronics that are turned off are still consuming energy in a phenomena called vampire electronics. Certain electronics like tv's, computers, speakers, dvd and blu ray players are all charging you extra wattage on your utility bill even though these products are switched off. Now, I don't know about you, but that does not make me a happy camper. Luckily, there exists this awesome product to help you in your journey of lowering your energy bill and thus saving the environment. It is called a smart strip. It works by cutting off the vampiric energy by using a master product such as a tv or computer that when switched off will switch off the peripheral devices connected to the strip as well. If you have a lot peripheral devices, you can get a smart strip with 10 outlets.

So say you have a plasma tv, DVR set, blu ray player, surround sound audio system, xbox, and a mac mini connected to your tv like I do. You would plug the your plasma tv into the master switching device, the DVR set would plug into the always on plug since you don't want that device off when your favorite shows are recording, and everything else gets plugged into the peripheral plugs. Now when your TV is off, it will automatically switch off all the other devices and stop them from wasting wattage. Depending on the devices hooked up, you could be saving some serious wattage which will add up to significant savings over the long run.

To help you find out exactly how much watts you are saving, their is another nifty product for that too, it's called Kill A Watt Electricity Usage Monitor. They typically run for $15 to $20 on Amazon. The cool thing about this product though is that you plug in your electronic device into the monitor and it will display how much watts it's actually using when the device is on, and when it is off as well to see what vampire effect your turned off product is using. Obviously, this part isn't required to help you green your home, but it is a really nice tool to have to help you identify what electronics in your home are using the most energy.

I am telling you, once you get thinking about how you can cut your energy costs down in terms of watts and in terms of dollars, it becomes insanely addicting. You even inadvertently become more aware of the things that you turn on and off on a regular basis. So just being aware of trying to save energy can have the positive side effect of you turning things off more promptly than you might have otherwise done in the past.

To get you a rough estimate of savings, their is a really cool energy savings calculator I found online. You can use it to estimate your savings by how much your state charges in kilowatts from your utility bill. This is a good tool to help make a financial decision since products like led lighting and these smart strips can be a little costly upfront. The savings are clear in the long run though, and are evident on your monthly bill from the power company.

Let us know if you've had success with these smart strips and how much watts and dollars you've saved.