If you have not cleaned the inside of your tower in the last year, especially if you have animals and a lot of dust, do yourself and your pc a huge favor and open that thing up and get those dust bunnies out of there, that in itself will save you a LOT, your pc will run better, less heat, last longer and not take as much effort to run. That is one of the top killers of computers. And it is a task anyone can do. If you need tutorials there are tons of them on google and youtube with step by step direction and we are here to help also. Just do it!! Mine have clear panels so everything inside is visible I have to keep a neat pc LOL But I love having the ability to see what is happening inside. Plus I like all the pretty lights too. I also cringe when I hear " I just turn off the power strip " My sincere hope is that each individual pc and monitor were actually properly shut down individually Before the strip was just turned off!! Unfortunately I know in some cases that is not so.

hobby_libby- The average computer may typically use about as much energy as a 100 watt bulb...more if it's really high-powered, less if not, and you'll generally use less overall if you are talking about a laptap rather than a traditional computer with stand alone monitor. An LCD monitor fully on (or with a screensaver) might use about 50 watts. So if your computer and an LCD monitor are fully on 10 hours a day, you're talking about using 1.5 kWhr. The cost for a single kWhr is maybe 10-15 cents in many parts of the country, so your total energy cost to have a computer and monitor on for 10 hours a day might be about 20 cents. Now if you decide to have no screensaver AND have it go into sleepmode when you are not using it, you could save at least 15 cents a day, or maybe $50 a year...if you have air conditioning going year-round. However, during the heating months, the heat energy thrown off by the computer goes to heat your home and the furnace has to provide a little less heat, so you get little benefit there. And, of course if you actually have the computer in use, then your savings will be proportionally less. Bottomline: if you put your computer in sleep mode, with the screen off, and you don't use the computer much, you'll save enough each month to buy one extra latte at Starbucks. Don't get me wrong. Saving energy and money is a good thing, and I'm not trying to discourage you. I was just making the point that you are not going to see the massive savings you might have expected. If you want to understand where the electricity really gets eaten up in your home, and how to conserve so you can reduce your bill in a noticeable way, check out the link below. At the bottom of the linked page there is lots of good info on things you can do, and how much different things in your home account for in the overall energy picture. Here is a link that might be useful: Electric use

Maura, This is my office now and since I do have the lap top I can move it over to the right when I need more desk space or push it back under the shelf and reach out to type. I have even had two laptops on the desk at once repairing one while getting repair directions on the other. The printer is on the left under the fabric and lace cover I just push back when I am using it and my office supplies are in the drawer under the printer. The desk is really small and I took the top off of an old wood kitchen table and set it on top of the small desk to give me more desk top area but not a larger foot print on the floor. This way I was able to tuck in the little one drawer thing with the printer. The other little side table is an old old hospital bedside meal tray.I use it for many things. I know this is all a bit crowded but this room is multi functional. It is my office, sewing room ,craft storage space, mosaic workroom and my exercise room. The room is 10 foot by 10 foot. Chris Here is a link that might be useful:

If the neutral came loose on a shared neutral circuit, and the light and the vacuum wind up on the same side, then the low resistance of the vacuum motor in parallel with the light could very well make it so dim that it appears to be off.. .. However, whatever was on the other side of the circuit would get MORE voltage at that point, so... there would be more 'symptoms' than just "the light goes out" ... of course! Maybe the other side of the circuit is entirely comprised of multi-voltage auto-switch power supplies... but probably not. :)