Many people wonder if unplugging appliances can lower electric bills, so one homeowner decided to test the idea.

For two weeks, the microwave was unplugged after every use to see whether its standby power was costing more than expected.

The goal was to eliminate the small amount of electricity used by the clock and other background functions.

Using an electricity monitor, the experiment showed the microwave continued drawing about 3 watts whenever it stayed plugged in.

Over an entire year, that standby power could add up to roughly 26 kilowatt-hours of electricity.

The test confirmed that unplugging the microwave completely stopped this hidden energy use.

But after tracking the results for two weeks, the actual savings were far smaller than expected.

The total electricity saved was only about half a kilowatt-hour during the entire experiment.

The biggest surprise wasn’t how much electricity disappeared—it was discovering whether those tiny savings were actually worth the daily effort.