Uplugging everything when done?

[mrpowderkeg]

I flip the breakers off, although I do not use the breakers as a switch to turn off running stuff. I only leave the furnace and lights breaker on.

 

[mad57]

Well i guess im not as crazy as i thought the stuff in my home is monitored more because we live ther and my wife is stay at home , but the coffee pot,hair drys ect are unplugged, my garage is detached as well and i have kids so i go alittle nutz there and also if the girls do grab the grinder and pull the trigger its safe, and its not uncommon that i skip a day going out there. i feel better thks for all the responses.mad57

 

[nolatoolguy]

For the main barns we dont. We do have a older barn we use as a work area and storage for fuel and other supplies. Wenever we leave there we just shut the power at the breaker down. When it comes to our hay barns we dont have power for out there. If we need power we just bring a genorator.

 

[Kev442]

Compressor off at the breaker, kicking on at 4AM is too damn annoying. Heaters unplugged and portable power tools and their extension cords usually unplugged and put away. Stupid battery chargers for the drills are a pain, just had to drag my **** out of bed at midnight the other day so I wouldn't wreck another battery.

 

[mkirkpatrick]

Shut off the power strips, don't unplug.

 

[taylorguitar]

Got a new Bosch table saw. Used it a few times and piddled with the blade alignment etc. I was putting the safety guard back on and had all 10 fingers on the blade....THEN, my two year old walked up behind me and flipped the power switch ON. I still have all ten fingers...because I had unplugged it just as I finished using it. I was quite pleased that I had done the right thing out of habit. It you aren't using right now, unplug it. Period!!

 

[zombies-nyc]

I unplug everything but I also wear a tinfoil hat to keep government satilites from reading my thoughts.

 

[jay50]

I trip the main at the breaker box everynight before bedtime.
I even remove the battery from my watch.

 

[Charles (in GA)]

In the shop the Air compressor, 2 gal water heater, the fridge a small radio, the drill press, the box fans (in summer), and the parts washer all stay plugged in. I just close the valve on the compressor, but only switch it off when I am leaving town.

Portable power tools, extension cords, trouble lights, task lights, stuff like that, all get unplugged and rolled up and put away. I don't switch off any breakers, and don't have any chargers in the shop (don't have ANY battery powered tools at all).

In the house I do get concerned about the heat generated by charger bricks and power bricks for the computer network hub, router, camera battery charger, cell phone charger, power brick for the cordless phone base unit, and a few other things, but I only unplug them, again, when I am going out of town.

I do keep the TV and radio, VCR, DVD, CD all of that stuff unplugged but its because I don't use any of it, except rarely. More concerned about a lightning strike (been there done that) than a simple electrical short or circuit card burnout.

In fact, was awaken this morning by thunder, got up and shut down the computer and unplugged everything (its all on uninterruptable power supplies, but I still unplug everything and disconnect the cable and phone lines).

Charles

 

[Charles (in GA)]

One thing, not so much related to shops or fires, but...

Many people do not realize how much power they waste when things are "off" but still plugged in. I recently bought a Kill-a-Watt meter and have been testing things and I'm outright shocked at what the standby uses are. I have a 13" TV in my office, that I haven't turned on in probably a year. It's been using 15 watts while OFF for the whole damn year! That's about $15 I could have saved if I would have just unplugged it. After looking for more stuff like this I had an easy 100 watts (24/7) around the house doing absolutely nothing that I could just unplug.

I bought a Kill-A-Watt this summer. trying to get an idea what various items cost to operate. The new energy star fridge in the shop cost just over $10 for two months at 13 cents Kwh. It will get cheaper as the weather cools, since its in a unheated/uncooled area. I moved it to the 2.5 gal water heater, where it will stay for a couple of months (I unplug the heater in the summer, water is warm enough without it).

Charles

 

[Jazz]

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder? BTW: I looked in the window of your garage a few minutes ago. I'm not sure but I think I saw heat gun plugged in and it was glowing red hot.

 

[930dreamer]

I leave all the lights on, fan, radio, heater stays off when I'm gone, most times.

 

[jwillis]

This post is a bit different from the one I was on- on here a few weeks ago. People thought I was nuts for wanting to unplug things like compressors on this site back then. But, I usually unplug things. Not furnaces or TVs, but I do unplug shop tools when I get done with them. One gentleman on here was concerned that his air compressor lost pressure overnight and I would never leave one on overnight. I always bleed the air out of them and unplug them or turn them off. Coffee pots too. And those little green and red lights that stay on when you VCR, DVD player, computer, phone, TVs, etc. are off? You would be surprised at the amount of electricity that they use in a year.

 

[nate379]

Why would you bleed teh air out? That seems like a waste of electricity... when you come back the next day you have to pump full an empty tank instead of a close to full one.

 

[Justanoldguy]

I leave most things plugged in.
Even in the house I rarely unplug anything.
****, it's only money...

 

[red]

When replacing halogen lights in the Kitchen I noticed the old transformer had changed color (from heat) and was warm. Wasn't happy when I figured out that I was paying for electric with the lights off. Put the new halogen lights on a switch outlet. Now no power to the transformer when the lights are off and no transformer waiting to burn up my kitchen

 

[Daniel Dudley]

I unplug the coffee pot. It has a big element that never turns off. I unplug the battery chargers, no need to have them running if they aren't working. I unplug most power tools that people could switch on unsupervised.

I take the keys out of the car as well.