On May 31, 2010

As Americans we love convenience. It’s built right in to almost every product we buy. We want things that make our lives easier, things we don’t have to think or worry about. The problem is that we’re paying an invisible price for convenience, a price we don’t have to pay. We’re paying for “Vampire Power”, the power that keeps our electronic devices ready and waiting for our return. Conservative estimates show that, as a country, we’re spending over 4 Billion dollars a year on Vampire Power.

What is Vampire Power?
Vampire Power, also known as Standby Power, is the energy electrical appliances use when they are plugged in but turned off. The DOE estimates that 10% or more of our monthly electric bills go to pay for Vampire Power. That can be a steep price to pay, both from an economic as well as environmental standpoint, for the convenience of turning on a device slightly quicker.

What can be done?
Vampire Power can be easily combated by following a few simple steps. The easiest way to stop vampire power is to unplug devices when they don’t need to be plugged in. Televisions, Computers and Phone Chargers are all big vampire power users. Some estimates show that upwards of 90% of a phone chargers energy use is from vampire power. So if you’re not using the devices, unplug them. An alternative to unplugging everything is to run appliances through surge protectors and flip the surge protector off when you won’t need to be using the devices.

What’s the impact?
Vampire power costs American’s over 4 Billion dollars a year. Beyond that, it’s responsible for at least 500 Million tons of CO2 each year. To put that in perspective, that’s larger than the entire carbon footprint of all but 5 other countries in the world. The amount of waste is staggering.

http://standby.lbl.gov/archives/faq.html

As always, We welcome any feedback you might have, as well as any personal stories. Have any of you cut your Carbon Footprint and electric bill by unplugging electrical devices when you didn’t need them? If so, share your story with us. We’d love to hear it.