When I needed it, I plugged it back in.
When I was finished, I unplugged it again.
It sounded easy enough.
It wasn’t.
The first day, I remembered every time.
I used the microwave, waited until I was finished, and pulled the plug from the wall.
The microwave display immediately went dark.
There was something oddly satisfying about it.
It felt like I was taking control of something that had been consuming electricity unnecessarily for years.
Then I went about my day.
The next morning, I walked into the kitchen and instinctively reached for the microwave.
Nothing happened.
Of course nothing happened.
I’d unplugged it.
I plugged it back in, set the clock, and continued with my morning.
That was the first thing I hadn’t really considered before starting the experiment.
Unplugging the microwave doesn’t just stop its standby power.
It also resets whatever needs electricity to maintain itself.
In my case, that meant the clock.
Every time I unplugged the microwave, the display went blank. When I plugged it back in, I had to reset the time.
After doing that several times, I began to understand why people don’t normally bother.
It’s a tiny inconvenience, but it’s still an inconvenience.
And that’s really the theme of this experiment.
The amount of effort required was surprisingly noticeable compared with the potential savings I expected.
Still, I was committed.
For the next two weeks, the microwave became part of my new electricity-saving routine.
Use it.
