Scare Away Energy Waste: 4 Ways to Slay Electricity Vampires

Halloween is coming up soon, so we thought we’d take a look at something scary that’s probably lurking in your home: energy vampires.  Also known as phantom power, it refers to items plugged into an outlet that draw power even when they aren’t being used.

Here are 4 Ways to Slay the Energy Vampires in your home:

1.     Plug your appliances into power strips.  Power strips let you toggle the power flow on and off. This means you can control the power usage of clusters of devices so that they’re not consuming electricity when you’re not at home. Using a light switch that turns power outlets on and off, if you have one, accomplishes the same end with even less effort. An advanced power strip makes it even easier by turning off idle electronics without any additional steps from you.

2.     Unplug. Unplug. Unplug. This probably won’t work for your cable box or wireless router, but if you have an extra TV or some other electronic device or appliance you don’t switch on often, you should consider unplugging it completely until the next time you actually use it.

3.     Curb idle time.  Simply setting your computer to sleep mode or stopping a game and powering down your video game console instead of leaving it paused for a prolonged period, could lead to bigger savings.

4.     Make smart upgrades.  When it comes time to send your old electronics and appliances to the graveyard, consider replacing them with ENERGY STAR devices. They have a lower standby consumption than your average device and use less energy all around.