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You probably remember the above scene from the 1989 holiday movie National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, right? In a memorable sequence, bumbling family man Clark Griswold (Chevy Chase) rigs his house with 25,000 Christmas lights and then proudly plugs in his extension cord. The house is blindingly illuminated. And then the power company’s backup nukes go online to handle the load, and the house’s power meter spins wildly. My question is: Are you a Griswold, or are you energy-efficient?

We’ve all endured the decades-long beatdown regarding cars and fuel economy. We know that anyone who drives a Hummer is evil while Prius owners deserve sainthood. But while that eco-message grabs the spotlight, another energy-efficiency issue is still dimly illuminated: your home’s energy consumption. Yes, in the winter, we turn the thermostat down, and in the summer it goes up. Yes, we might even put some extra insulation up in the attic. Meanwhile, we’re plugging in more and more powersucking devices, apparently oblivious to the fact that electricity consumption equals pollution.

Back in the day, you had a small TV and a stereo. Today, you have a big TV, home-theater system, DVR, set-top box, game console, computer, printer, scanner, router, cellphone, and MP3 player — and that’s just in one room. If your house was built in the ’80s, a typical room probably has two or three outlet boxes. That’s because people had a lot less stuff to plug in. Today, rooms are built with double or triple the number of outlets. Why? In 1980, a U.S. home averaged three CE devices. Today, the number is 25.

Good thing that, thanks to strict mandatory energy guidelines, efficiency of appliances such as refrigerators and air conditioners has dramatically improved. Energy efficiency for CE gear, however, is voluntary. As a result, your big flat-screen TV might consume more power per year than your refrigerator. CE products hog 15% of household power worldwide, and that’s expected to increase to 45% within 20 years. To service that would require building 560 coal-fired power plants. Two more fun facts: Game consoles in the U.S. consume as much power as the city of San Diego, and our TVs consume enough electricity to power all the homes in the state of New York for an entire year.

If you turn off your lights (yes!) and walk through your home, you’ll be surprised to see how many red and green (very festive) LEDs are glowing. Those all represent appliances that, even in standby mode, are on the grid and silently drawing current. And that wouldn’t even catch all the wall-wart power supplies. Even when your cellphone isn’t connected for charging, that warm little wart is phantomly consuming power.

So maybe you’re just not interested in saving the planet. Fine. But how about shaving 20 bucks off your monthly power bill? Turn off anything you’re not using. Unplug phantom power suckers. Plug gear into switched power strips, and power up only when using them. Finally, when buying a new product, buy one with the best Energy Star rating. A watt here, a watt there, and pretty soon you’re an ecological superman.

Well, in any case, I sincerely hope you have a happy holiday season. Consume a little less power and make a New Year’s resolution to consume even less in 2010. And here’s one more idea for your holiday dinner with the family: candlelight.

-- Ken C. Pohlmann