Reduce #2: printing

I have been wondering for awhile now about the power consumed by electronics that are plugged in but not turned on. I started doing research and found out that this is called "vampire power" or "standby power." My first appliance to tackle is my HP Deskjet D4260 inkjet printer.

I use this printer for about 40 minutes a month. I love the convenience of being able to print boarding passes, the occasional map, resumes, and typed letters/papers. I found two places to research the power consumption of my printer. The "Reference Guide" which came with the printer says that the power consumption is <1 watt when off but plugged in, <3 watts in power save mode, and 44 watts when printing. Product specifications at the HP website give the extra information that the printer uses 7 watts when fully on and ready to print, but not actively printing. In the following calculations, I use 1 watt for off and 3 watts for power save.

Estimated monthly use:
30 minutes actively printing= .022 kWh
10 minutes fully-on, but not actively printing= .001 kWh
24 hours in power save mode (forget to turn off)=.072 kWh
24 hours off (forget to unplug)=.024 kWh
Total: .119 kWh

What if I left it on and plugged in all month?
30 minutes actively printing= .022 kWh
10 minutes fully-on, but not actively printing= .001 kWh
30 days in power save mode=2.160 kWh
Total: 2.183 kWh

What if I left it off and plugged in all month?
30 minutes actively printing= .022 kWh
10 minutes fully-on, but not actively printing= .001 kWh
30 days plugged in=.72 kWh
Total: .743 kWh

Easy choice: My printer uses a small amount of electricity, but I can still take action to minimize the electricity use. The easy choice is to do all the printing that I want (.023 kWh), and to unplug the printer when not in use. If I forget to unplug the printer for just one day, I double the amount of electricity it uses in the month! The plug is easily accessible, so this is an easy choice to unplug it when not in use. The most irresponsible use (leaving it plugged in and in power-save mode) of the printer could waste more than 2 kWh a month or 26 kWh a year.

Thanks to HP for publishing power consumption information!