Reduce Vampire Energy
What is Vampire Energy?
Vampire energy is the electricity that’s used by appliances and electronic devices when they’re in standby or sleep mode. Like desktop computers, printers, copiers. etc. (NOTE: newer electronics waste less energy.)
Research has found that vampire energy loads make up 5-10% of the total electricity in residential homes and accounts for about 1% of the world’s carbon dioxide emissions. Office equipment consumes approximately 7% of commercial electricity or $1.8 billion in costs to businesses. For some devices, the electricity loads for “on” and “off” modes are nearly the same. For instance, an inkjet fax machine on average consumes 6.22 watts while it’s on and 5.31 when it’s in standby mode.
Ways to stop energy vampires:
- Disable screensavers on all laptops and monitors.
- Schedule devices like TVs and NAS devices to power down after office hours or when not in use.
- Ask your equipment vendors how to reduce energy usage. For example, the next time the copier needs to be repaired, talk to the repair person.
- Using Energy Star Certified Products is a great way to preventing vampire energy loss. Although you pay a higher price upfront you’ll save more over the time you use the product in electricity costs. (as mentioned in the payless power complete guide to vampire power)
For more ideas, see Eight ways to reduce phantom load costs by Joe Liu, Director, Sales Strategy & PMO, International Sales Org at Lenovo (2018).
Resources:
- Standby Power, by Energy Education
- Fact Sheet Vampire Power, by the Office of the Ohio Consumer Counsel
- Vampire Energy, by Harvard University
- Complete Guide to Vampire Power by Payless Power
- Eight Ways to Reduce Phantom Load Costs by Joe Liu
Contributors: Shruti, Melissa, Saba