There’s a creepy vampire lurking in your home at this very second. But, there’s no need to wear strands of garlic around your neck. This vampire doesn’t feast on blood—it consumes energy through your electrical outlets. So, does unplugging appliances save electricity? Let’s learn more about vampire energy and how it can affect your bill!

What Are Energy Vampires?

An energy vampire is a term used to describe an appliance or electronic device that continues to consume energy through an electrical outlet even when it is not in use. For example, a cell phone charger that is plugged into an electrical outlet will consume energy even when it is not charging a device. Since the energy is not used to power a device, it goes to waste.

A cell phone charger does not waste a significant amount of energy on its own, however it is far from the only energy vampire in your home. Together, the energy vampires in your home waste enough energy to drastically increase your utility bills and harm the environment. In fact, it’s estimated that energy vampires account for about 20% of your monthly electricity bill. For this reason, homeowners need to learn how to stop these vampires from wreaking havoc on their homes and wallets.

How to Get Rid of Energy Vampires

It’s not possible to kill an energy vampire with a wooden stake, but there are other effective methods. Perhaps the simplest way to fight these vampires is by using a power strip. For example, plug your printer, computer, and fax machine into a power strip in your home office. At the end of the day, turn the power strip off instead of letting the devices remain idle or turning them off one-by-one. The devices will not be able to consume energy once the power strip has been turned off, so this is an effective way to fight the vampires in your home. You can also unplug devices, however it’s best to only use this tactic on appliances that are rarely used.

Purchasing Energy Star appliances is another way to combat energy vampires. Many Energy Star appliances prevent energy vampires from wasting electricity by restricting the amount of energy they consume while in standby mode. For example, Energy Star televisions cannot consume more than 0.5 watts of electricity in standby-passive mode. This feature ensures that the devices will not waste a significant amount of energy when they are not in use.

Some smart home devices can assist with the fight against energy vampires, too. Smart electrical outlet switches will control when each outlet in your home is capable of powering electronic devices for appliances. These outlets are also controlled through a smartphone app, which makes saving energy even more convenient. For example, let’s say you forget to unplug devices and turn off power strips before leaving for vacation. Open the app for your smart outlets and turn the outlets in your home off. This will stop the flow of electricity to the electronic devices and appliances in your home, so you don’t have to worry about vampires roaming through the halls while you’re away.

Following these tips will not only lower your utility bills, but it will also reduce your carbon footprint. Before you settle in for a cozy winter in front of the fire, make sure you implement some of these strategies so you can fight the vampires lurking around the outlets in your home.