After receiving my ever increasing electric bill I decided it is time to unplug or at least power down all my home office equipment when I leave my office each day.

At first I was a little resistant to this idea, thinking I was already conserving power with the devices in sleep mode.

Then I read this quote  ”Our tests found that leaving a Playstation 3 on while not in use would cost almost… five times more than it would take to run a refrigerator for the same yearly period,” said the study which was published on Choice’s website www.choice.com.au.”

Now of course I don’t have a playstation3 in my home office (darn it), but I do have a couple of printers, a credit card processor, a caller id box and a laptop.

Now when I am done working for the day I turn off the power strip and that cuts the power to each of these devices.  I feel like I have helped in a small way make my home office greener and save a little energy for another day.  It’s too early to tell if my electric bill will benefit too.

I have noticed an advantage I was not anticipating; I feel more “unplugged”.  With everything off I choose not to run back in after dinner to finish that one last job, or check email or voicemail one last time.

So if you don’t already unplug your office, I highly recommend you give it a try.