Energy use: myths and facts

 In the face of rising energy costs, consumers are looking for ways to reduce their energy use. Although there are a lot of good ideas out there, there also are a lot of misconceptions about what is really effective. Here are some of the most common myths and the facts to set you on the right path.

 Myth:  Screen savers reduce energy use.

 Fact:  Screen savers do not cut energy use. Screen savers were developed to mitigate a problem called “screen burn-in” that can occur in both cathode ray tube (CRT) and liquid crystal display (LCD) computer monitors and TV screens. Burn-in occurs when a given image, such as a logo or a menu bar for a computer program, appears on a monitor for a long period of time. The mechanics are different for CRT and LCD displays, but the result is essentially the same. Over time, these long-duration images can get “burned” into the screen so that the viewer sees a “ghost” of these images even when they are not supposed to be there. By using a screen saver, you prevent specific images from being displayed in the same location when your computer is dormant for a long period of time, thus avoiding burn-in. But it takes just as much energy to display a screen saver on your screen as it does to display any other program. To save energy, adjust your computer’s power management settings to automatically shut the monitor down after a specified period of idle time, or simply turn off the monitor if you are not going to be using it for 15 minutes or more.

 Myth:  Surge protectors reduce energy use.

 Fact:  A small number of transient-voltage surge suppressor (a.k.a. surge protector) manufacturers and vendors continue to make energy-saving claims for their products, despite the fact that such claims were thoroughly debunked decades ago. Even if there were some mechanism by which surge protectors could save energy, the reality is that there is simply no opportunity for these devices to do so because they are dormant more than 99.999 percent of the time. They become active only when some event creates a very high-voltage spike. Surge protectors are an effective way of protecting your electrical equipment against voltage spikes, but do not buy one to cut energy costs, because it will not work.

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