If i turn my surge protector off but leave it plugged in, am I still using electricity?


surge protector
cheripeach asked:


Should I unplug the surge protector all together to save on my electricity bill?

This entry was posted on Thursday, April 16th, 2009 at 12:00 am and is filed under Conservation. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

9 Responses to “If i turn my surge protector off but leave it plugged in, am I still using electricity?”

  1. E. F. Hutton Says:

    If it uses any it will be extremely small, barely measurable.

  2. zebo007 Says:

    YES, It uses electricity NOT a lot but YES it does.

  3. john m Says:

    If you cut it off there is no way it could use any power. How could it? The wire was cut at the switch so no electrons could flow past that point.

  4. MasterPython Says:

    I think most surge protectors have physical on/off switches so they do no use power when shut off.

  5. worm12ga Says:

    Most (nearly all) surge protectors use no power when switched off.

  6. Shadowboxer68 Says:

    Yes it dose so dose your phone charger and most all appliances it will keep using energy even without it being on

  7. themrs777 Says:

    Yes, but much less than if you had all of those plugs in the wall. If you want to be really sure, keep everything plugged into the strip, and then just unplug the strip. That way you’re not unplugging 6 things every time you’re done watching tv.

    Good for you for making that extra effort!

  8. wagnerlip Says:

    Some surge protectors are build in a way that the protective electronic components inside will only consume electricity in case of a surge, high voltage flowing through the wires, so those will not consume anything measurable.

    By other side, there are surge protectors that consume electricity, and in most cases are just to inform you that everything is ok. Some surge protectors have two LEDs (light emitting diodes) that when signaling GREEN it means the important components inside are ok, when RED it means the protective components are damaged by a previous electricity surge, and you need to replace the whole unit. They consume very small, but there is a consume, perhaps half a dollar per year.

  9. whsgreenmom Says:

    I’ve been told almost anything plugged in draws a little electricity. I have power strips with switches on them and have my tv’s, vcr’s, game systems, and stereos plugged into them. When I turn off the tv, I flip the switch. I save about $50-70 on my electric bills doing this and unplugging chargers.

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