Halloween is the time of year for ghosts, goblins, and vampires, along with cowboys, superheroes, and everything in between.
But while that little vampire trick or treating at your doorstep is all for fun, you may have real vampires in your home. Energy vampires.
These are appliances and electronic devices that continue to drain your electricity even when they are off.
It’s estimated that that these energy suckers account for up to 5% to 10% of your energy use every year, just by being plugged in.
According to a recent article from scvnews.com:
“Most energy vampires go into “standby” mode, where they continuously suck a trickle of electricity to power features such as clocks and LED status lights. Yes, that means your glowing microwave clock is actually a creature of the night!
Some energy vampires that might be draining your wallet include:
* TVs (especially LCD and plasma TVs)
* Video game and home audio systems, DVD players, & cable boxes
* Computers
* Chargers for cell phones, MP3 players, notebook computers, tablets, etc.”
It goes on to give you some tips on how to “slay” energy vampires in your home.
“* Unplug appliances and devices when they’re not in use or have finished charging. It may not be feasible to unplug every energy vampire, but it’s easy to unplug in areas not frequently used, such as a guest room or garage.
* Plug appliances into an easily accessible power strip or surge protector and turn the entire power strip off when the devices aren’t in use.
* Buy weaker energy vampires. You may not be able to completely avoid energy vampires, but you can purchase appliances that drain less energy than others when in standby mode.”
See full article at: http://scvnews.com/2014/10/06/beware-appliances-that-want-to-drain-your-energy/
So, take the time to make a quick sweep of your electronic devices and find out where your energy vampires are hiding and save money on your next electric bill.