How To Keep Vampire Electronics From Sucking You Dry

Vampire electricity, also known as standby power, accounts for about 5-10% of residential electricity use. But what exactly is standby power and how can you reduce it? According to standby.lbl.gov, standby power is the energy consumed by a product while it is switched off or not performing its primary function. Basically it is devices that are pulling power, or sucking (haha), power all day and night! 

How can you identify these power draining devices?
Blinking light are a great indicator as they usually mean that power is on.

Reduce Standby Power By Making These Changes:

• Unplug your cell phone chargers when they are not in use. Many chargers pull energy when they are just plugged in and are not in use. 
• Unplug your electric toothbrush. It will let you know when it needs to be charged so there is no need to have it constantly plugged in. 
• Turn off fans when no one is in the room. Fans cool people, not spaces!
• Turn off lights when you are not in the room. Think about switching to energy efficient LED lightening while you are at it. 
• Put your computer to sleep instead of using a screen saver.
• Only turn your printer on when you are using it, the rest of the time leave it off. 
• Use a power strip with an on/off switch for groups of electronics and switch off when not in use.
• Switch off your treadmill after use. Or even better, use a power strip to switch off your treadmill. You might want to use a power strip with surge protection for your more expensive electronics.
• Have a TV in a spare room that is not  being used - unplug it! When guests come over you can plug it back in!
• Turn off/unplug your game console after you are finished playing. 
  
  

Slight changes in your habits now can add up to bigger savings later. Want even bigger savings? Think about programming your thermostat a few degrees warmer or cooler for even more savings, depending on the time of the year.