Credit: DCL
Living with Ed follows Ed Begley, Jr., and his wife, Rachelle, as they green their home, family, and celebrity friends. But if you've ever wondered what kind of advice they'd give the rest of us, then the Ask Ed forum is your chance to find out. Readers submit questions and comments about the show, green living, etc., and Ed chimes in with his green answers; here, we've rounded up some highlights of the past week.
Q. The wall sockets in my home come with on/off switches. Can I stop my TV, stereo, computer, etc from drawing phantom loads when they're off by just switching the wall socket off? It seems to me that doing that should cut off all power to the appliances. Or should I unplug them all just to be completely sure that they're not wasting electricity when they're off?
A. If the on/off switches on your wall outlets actually shut the receptacle off, then that is a great way to prevent phantom loads without having to physically pull the plug. It's like having a power strip with an on/off switch on each outlet. Nice feature.
Ed
Q. What do you think of a plug-in solar power system? They say the one that generates 150kwh/month will be $3,000-$4,000 in 2011 before tax rebates. This would hardly make a dent in my energy use; At a savings of $240/year, it would take me 8 years to break even and to really start benefiting.
What's your take on this type of solar power product?
A. I've seen plug-n-play solar systems like this advertised but I've never tested one so I can't speak to their actual output and potential payback. But products like this are encouraging.
Ed
Q. I saw in another posting that you use and electric toothbrush. I try to be as green as possible, especially when it comes to plastic gadgets, but recently I've had several cavities and so I'm considering an electric toothbrush to improve my dental hygiene. Do you know of a model that is made of environmentally prefereble materials, and/or uses rechargeable batteries?
A. I use an electric to supplement regular on dentist's advice. It uses very little power and holds a charge for about 18 hours. Don't leave the charger plugged in -- it will draw a bit of phantom power. Other than that, it's very very little energy use.
Ed
