Beware of Vampire Power

• Stumble This
• Digg This
• Share on Delicious
• Share on Facebook
• Tweet This
• Tags: energy, green, Green Living, Green Tips, household energy, power, save energy, saving evergy, standby power, vampire power

As kids are getting their Halloween costumes ready and you’re stocking up on candy for trick-or-treaters, remember the vampires — the electricity vampires that is. Even when you think you’ve turned off everything in your home, power is being consumed by plugged-in electrical devices that are switched off or in standby mode.

This standby or vampire power accounts for about 10% of total residential consumption and 22% of all appliance consumption. While this may not seem like a lot, it’s unnecessary electricity and could cost you up to $50 a year on your energy bill.

How can you stop the electricity vampires from sucking energy? Start by finding the culprits. Aside from items you need to stay on like wireless internet routers, cordless phones, Tivos and the like, just about everything that stays plugged-in around the clock is at fault: DVD players, TVs, printers, coffee makers, speakers, cell phone chargers that aren’t in use, video game systems, devices with remote controls and digital alarm features and power-adapters without off-switches.

Next, stop letting those devices suck your blood, er, power. You can do the obvious, unplug items when not in use — this works great for cell phone chargers and maybe even coffee makers, but can get complicated for major electronics. An easier solution is to plug big power draining electronics into power strips equipped with off-switches. You could have one designated for office devices like your printer, fax machine and computer speakers that you can flick off each time you’re done working. Or hook all of your entertainment sources (i.e. TV, DVD player, Wii, surround sound speakers, stereo) into another one so you can flip the switch when it’s time for the night to end.

Even easier? Get a system designed to make saving energy easy like Belkin’s Conserve Energy Saving Surge Protector with Remote Switch. It has ten outlets, eight of which you can switch off and two that stay on, so you can plug in devices there that always need to stay on like your DVR. Then, when you want to shut of the power to the other eight, you can do so with a remote so you don’t have to navigate the mess of cords behind your TV console or wherever you’re using the surge protector.

Technorati Tags: energy, green, Green Living, Green Tips, household energy, power, save energy, saving evergy, standby power, vampire power