Energy Conservation Project: A Research Plan

If I were to make it a habit to unplug all electronics in my apartment any time they are likely to sit unused for an extended period of time, how much energy and money,would I save per week? Also, how feasible is it to do this seven days a week? Upon googling "unplugging electronics saves energy," I came upon this site, which has quite a few good energy-saving tips and mentions that "phantom loads" from appliances not in use are often quite high. This even better website also had a lot of fine tips for easy ways to save energy at home and in the office; of interest to me in particular is that unplugging unnecessary appliances was high on their list, placed at number 6 out of 21! A good suggestion was to put many appliances that need to be unplugged onto a power strip so they can all be turned off at once. My favorite web-find, however, popped up when I googled "unplugging electronics saves how much energy." It mentions the energy-measuring device like the one my colleague borrowed from the library (a watt hour meter) and provides example calculations for determining how much energy and money is sucked down by idle appliances. They also report a few wildly varying passive-energy-draw rates for different appliances, ranging from less than a dollar per year for leaving the toaster plugged in to almost $40 for having a functional DVR, reassuring me that this will be an interesting and worthwhile focus for my project.

In order to begin answering my question, I'll need to procure my own watt hour meter, take readings on passive energy use for each appliance in my home, consult my monthly energy bill to determine how much Municipal Light and Power charges per kilowatt hour, consult my own good sense and husband to determine which appliances are "not in use" for how much time per day on average, and generate data on the relative value of ecological responsibility as compared to the value of our time and sanity, both of which have potential to be highly impacted by repeated visits to every outlet in our home multiple times per day. I plan on creating a simple spreadsheet to record my data and calculations prior to taking any readings.

Whew! I am now encouraged as to the do-ability of this project. Let's hear it for planning!