Vampire Power Loss
Photo by: mrfranz
The power our electronics consume when plugged in (and switched off) is called phantom or vampire power. A perfect example of vampire power is the cell phone charger in your wall right now. Even without your phone attached, the charger is still drawing power, wasting unnecessary electricity and costing you money. In the United States alone, vampire power costs consumers more than $3 billion dollars a year. The U.S. consumes 26% of the world’s energy, 5% of which is credited to vampire power. Our wasted KW hours of vampire power could power the country of Italy ever year.
Vampire power loss most likely comes from one of the following:
- A charger (of a PDA, razor etc.) running a constant power stream when plugged into an outlet.
- An appliance or electronic in passive mode that requires power to display a screen or an internal clock, like the refrigerator.
- An appliance or electronic in active mode that can be turned on at a moment’s notice like a television or computer.
Good Magazine created this graph that shows the total cost of vampire power loss in a common household.
The solution to reducing vampire power is simple. If an object isn’t plugged in, it won’t consume power. Unplug all your chargers and electronics while they are not in use. For those who want to take the next step, run all the active mode electronics of your entertainment center through a “smart” power strip. A “smart” strip allows a master appliance to control the power of all other electronics attached. When your television is turned off, your DVD player and speaker system will not draw any active mode power. Implementing these simple steps along with a common sense power management plan can reduce your electric bill by 10%.