Is it really necessary to unplug all electronic devices and household appliances when not in use?

Almost everyone I know seems to have an `unplugger` in their family.

There is some soundness to the `unpluggers` argument, but recent technological breakthroughs have made their precautions ‘unnecessary’.

Safety first

Around the world, specifically the US Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has made recommendations to unplug electrical devices when not in use, based on the clear observation that unplugged things

But the truth is that there are plenty of devices that have built-in clocks or memory that we don’t want to have to reset after unplugging them, not to mention there are countless other reasons we might not want to unplug them all.

It’s certainly sound advice.

For low-load appliances, using a switched outlet is a simple alternative, but remember to never use the outlet for high-load appliances (including ovens, refrigerators,

Unplugging saves money?

In the pre-computer era (computers were not yet popular), except for some devices that used backup power as exceptions, the majority of your energy consumption came from a few large devices such as computers.

Then in the 2000s, using backup power started to become the norm.

Therefore, to start a public awareness campaign, government regulations and technological advancements have determined to reduce standby power consumption.

`It has changed dramatically,` said Dr. Alan Meier, a scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory.

The most important change is the redesign of the smaller power supply.

And because so many appliances are now controlled by computers, everything from your washing machine to your oven to your water heater benefits from efficiency gains, sometimes reducing standby capacity by up to 90%.

So what’s the latest advice for the `unpluggers` in your life?

What do we do to save energy?

Here are some suggestions for reducing your electricity bill without having to run around plugging and unplugging everything you own:

Replace all remaining incandescent light bulbs in the house with LED lights.

Don’t heat and cool an empty house.

Enable `sleep mode` on integrated devices.

Replace old equipment with newer, more efficient models.

Look for devices you forgot and unplug them.

Insulate your hot water heater, or set it to a lower temperature.