Actually, there’s a collection of vampires. A veritable coven, in fact.
These vampires live in forms we all recognize: Power strip, phone charger, stereo, television. No, these devices aren’t sucking our blood, they’re sucking our power.
The fact is, even when you turn off the TV if it’s plugged into the wall it still pulls power from the electrical grid. According to a recent study, although a plugged-in cell phone pulls more than two watts of power every hour, the charger alone sucks .14 watts by doing nothing.
If you consider that a furnace uses more than 300 watts of power, a little quarter-watt doesn’t seem to make much difference. But think about all the little plugged in things combining together and that adds up to a lot of juice!
So grab your garlic. (It’s a metaphor, okay?) Here’s how you and your family can get the vampires out:
• Unplug if you’re not using something. I mean really, how often
do you use that blender?
• Plug into a power strip, and when you’re not using the devices
turn off the strip.
• Take your chargers out of the wall if you’re not charging.
There are all kinds of other gizmos that address the problem of vampire power. I’m coveting a new power strip that senses when devices are not in use and shuts off automatically. But short of buying new, these three tips can really help you save.
And here’s my favorite one. We no longer tell the kids to turn off their lights. After reading about global warming, now we yell, “Save a polar bear!”
