© Vikka | Stock Free Images & Dreamstime Stock Photos
"Vampires could be lurking the shadows of your home. Energy vampires continuously suck energy from electrical outlets and unnecessarily waste energy. These vampires won’t drain your blood; they’ll drain your pockets! Energy vampires cost Americans almost $10 billion a year, and account for almost 11 percent of all U.S. energy use!”
Energy vampires are the electronics, adapters, and appliances with fangs in your outlet, sucking power even when apparently not in use or “off.” For example, a TV always uses a little power so it can always receive the “on” signal from the remote control. Chargers, too, use power even when not plugged into their device. You can easily check your home for energy vampires using your power meter. Turn everything off as you normally do, as if you were leaving for the day - but don’t unplug anything you don’t normally unplug. Now, look at your power meter. What do you have for vampires sucking energy from your home?"
Top 10 Energy Vampires in Your home
Laptop computer chargers
Answering and machines
Computer printer
TVs and cable boxes
VCRs, DVD players, DVD recorders, digital video recorders
Phone and iPod chargers
Hubs and routers
Video camera battery charger
Plugged-in electric toys
Night lights
My wife and I have looked at this list, and one easy solution we've found is to plug electronics into a power strip, and either switch off the strip itself or plug it into a switched outlet and turn that off when you're not using the devices. We've done that with our TV, DVD and cable box group, and our computer, monitor, printer and accessories group. Feels nice to really shut down at night and on the weekend. No blinking lights or faint power hums in the house.
Might be little spooky at first, but better that than being frightened of your electric bill!
Here is some more information about energy vampires:
The Scary Truth About Vampire Energy
