What to Unplug and Turn Off When You Leave for Summer Vacation

While you’re on vacation this summer, your air conditioners, refrigerator, and other appliances could be sucking energy out of your home. Here’s are the appliances you should unplug and adjust before you go on vacation.

Which appliances should you adjust or schedule before you go on vacation?

• Air conditioner. Your home doesn’t need to be a comfortable 75 degrees if you’re not going to be there. If you have pets that you’re worried about, or you’ll be gone for an extended period of time, just raise your thermostat temp to about 85 degrees so your A/C isn’t cranked on max the entire time you’re gone. If you’re still using an old school AC consider purchasing an air conditioner you can schedule or adjust on the fly from your phone, like the sleek-looking Windmill AC that TikTok loves and can be controlled from your phone.
• Water heater. Your water heater uses a ton of energy to keep a lot of hot water shower-ready. If it’s gas, switch it to the “pilot” setting. If it’s electric, turn it off at the breaker switch. If you don’t want to do that, at least turn the temperature setting down. Make sure you turn it back on (or back up) at least an hour before you try to shower when you get back.
• Main water supply. This won’t save you money initially, but it could save you some if there’s a potential leak. You’ll also avoid a lot of grief. It doesn’t take long to turn off and then back on, so you might as well be better safe than sorry.
• Lights. Leaving the lights on the entire time you’re on vacation is a waste of energy, but leaving the lights off all the time can be an invitation to thieves. So keep things on a timer. The Philips Hue comes with a “presence mimicking” feature that makes it look like you’re home, and the starter kit is less than $100.

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Should you empty your refrigerator before you go on vacation?

For very long trips, you’ll probably want to trash perishable refrigerated items so they don’t spoil. For trips shorter than three weeks or so, it depends. Most fridges cost around $7 to $18 a month to operate, so removing food and tossing it probably isn’t worth the few dollars you might save if you’re only going to be gone a week. Some newer refrigerators like this Forno Salerno side-by-side come with “vacation” or “holiday” mode that keeps the freezer running normally, but slightly raises the temperature in some parts of the fridge while you’re gone. If your smart fridge doesn’t come with vacation mode, you can generally change settings manually from your phone.

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What should unplug before you go on vacation?

• Electronics with external power supplies or “power bricks.” Laptops, video game consoles, stereos, smartphone chargers, and other similar devices constantly draw power into their power supplies. Unplug all of your chargers, whether it’s for a tablet or a toothbrush.
• Electronics with standby or “sleep” modes. Desktop PCs, televisions, cable boxes, DVD/Blu-ray players, alarm clocks, radios, and anything with a remote control is never truly “off.” If the item has an “instant on” feature or has LED lights glowing when it’s off, it’s always draining small amounts of power. If items like this are all plugged into a surge protector, you can just turn off the surge protector itself. If they’re not plugged into a surge protector, what are you doing, mate? Get some decent surge protectors!
• Modems and routers. These are literally always on and using power. Unplug them and you’ll not only save some energy cost, but you’ll avoid having your Wi-Fi hacked into while you’re gone.
• Small appliances. Toasters, blenders, rice cookers, coffee machines, food processors, microwaves, etc. Anything with a clock is a culprit. Space heaters and fans should be unplugged as well.
• New washers and dryers. If you have a fancy new washer/dryer set with lights, digital timers, and the like, they’ll drain power while they’re “off” just like a computer or TV will.

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