Sam Houston Electric Cooperative

ENERGY MYTHS DEBUNKED

Ever heard something that just didn't sound right, but went along with because everyone else did? At Sam Houston Electric Cooperative, our goal is to provide you with the right information to use your electric service efficiently and safely.

As energy costs continue to rise, we know members looking for ways to reduce their energy use. Although there are a lot of good ideas out there, there are a lot of misconceptions as well about what is really effective. Here are some of the most common myths and the facts to set you on the right path.

Myth: Computers, monitors, and other office equipment will use less energy and last longer if they are left running all of the time.

Fact: Turning equipment off overnight does not shorten its life, and the small surge of power that occurs when some devices are turned on is much smaller than the energy used by running equipment when it is not needed. In fact, leaving computers and other office equipment on overnight and on weekends wastes significant amounts of energy and also adds to the wear and tear on the equipment. In general, turn off equipment you are not using or make sure that energy-saving features on networks or individual machines are enabled. Some office equipment, including printers and scanners, features small transformers that use energy even when the equipment is turned off. Plug all such devices into a power strip so that they can be shut down completely with one flick of the switch.

Myth: A broken compact florescent bulb (CFL) requires a special cleaning crew to contain released mercury.

Fact: Hiring a professional cleaning crew is probably overkill as the broken glass poses more of a danger than the released mercury. However, cleaning a broken CFL does require a little more effort on your part.

The Environmental Protection Agency recommends the following clean-up and disposal guidelines:

1. Open a window and leave the room (restrict access) for at least 15 minutes.

2. Remove all materials you can without using a vacuum cleaner. Wear disposable rubber gloves, if available (do not use your bare hands). Carefully scoop up the fragments and powder with stiff paper or cardboard. Wipe the area clean with a damp paper towel or disposable wet wipe. Sticky tape (such as duct tape) can be used to pick up small pieces and powder.

3. Place all cleanup materials in a plastic bag and seal it. If your state permits you to put used or broken CFLs in the garbage, seal the CFL in two plastic bags and put into the outside trash (if no other disposal or recycling options are available). Wash your hands after disposing of the bag.

4. The first time you vacuum the area where the bulb was broken, remove the vacuum bag once done cleaning the area (or empty and wipe the canister) and put the bag and/or vacuum debris, as well as the cleaning materials, in two sealed plastic bags in the outdoor trash or protected outdoor location for normal disposal.

CFLs do contain a very small amount of mercury sealed within the glass tubing – an average of 5 milligrams, which is roughly equivalent to an amount that would cover the tip of a ball-point pen. No mercury is released when the bulbs are intact or in use. By comparison, older thermometers contain about 500 milligrams of mercury. It would take 100 CFLs to equal that amount. Many manufacturers are developing new techniques to reduce the trace amount of mercury used to produce these bulbs. Be careful and enjoy your energy savings.

Fact: Although turning on an air conditioner will cause a power spike, it lasts just a fraction of second, which is not enough time to have a significant impact on your monthly bill. The biggest determining factors of how much it costs to cool your home are your thermostat setting, your unit's efficiency and how well your home is insulated. Most air conditioners work best set 20 degrees below the outside temperature, so if its 100 degrees outside, set the temperature to 80 degrees. If your unit is cycling on and off in short periods of time or seems to never turn itself off, it may be time to have a heating and cooling professional check to see if it is running efficiently. Finally, keep doors and windows closed as much as possible and caulk and seal leaks around your home to keep your conditioned air in and the heat out.

Fact: Purchasing an air conditioning unit larger than the recommended size for your home can cost you lots of money, not to mention comfort. Air conditioners cool your home's air and remove excess humidity. A big unit will cool the house quickly, but may not drive out the humidity, resulting in the air not feeling cool very long and causing the machine to cycle on and off more than a properly sized air conditioner would. In the case of air conditioners, bigger isn't always better.

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.

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.