The vampire power, which is also called standby power, means the power consumed by the unplugged electronic devices after being turned off or turned into a standby mode, such as computers, TVs and microwave ovens. For some of the electronic devices, they are still consuming the power even though they are not performing primary functions. For instance, when a computer is turned off, there is some power consumed in order to do the things like keeping the time, searching for available wireless signals or saving settings. The amount of consumption varies depending on the different devices and the modes they are turned in.
There are a lot of products that will draw standby power. According to the statistics on the Standby Power website, in a normal American house, there would be around forty products consuming the power. The total amount of power consumed consists of 10% of the residential electricity use. A lot of electricity has been used without any notice.
The main waste of the vampire power is from the inefficiency of the electricity. Not all the power is wasted, some of the standby power is actually essential for the electronic devices to perform normally.
To reduce the waste on the vampire power, there are several things can be done:
First, people's awareness of such waste should be raised. Unplugging the electronic devices after turned off needs the prerequisite of people knowing the importance of unplugging them.
Second is to identify which devices that are consuming the vampire power. Basically, most product with external power supply, or batteries will draw power continuously. Therefore, we should unplug those that are not frequently used products.
Use energy saving products that have high efficiency and less waste on vampire power.
