Homeowner tips

Are home energy vampires draining your wallet?

Vanquish power sucking home energy vampires with these tips

Ghosts, zombies and ghouls are scary for sure, but nothing spooks you more than the gruesome discovery of a sky-high energy bill. Creepy phantom power suckers are all around you, hiding in the smallest electric appliance, draining power so slowly you might not even notice them. But these standby suckers can account for 10-20% of your electric bill. So after you turn off the lights for the last trick-or-treaters, be sure to take these steps to keep the home energy vampires from sucking your wallet dry.

Hunting Ghost Loads

The first step to ridding your home of energy vampires is to lure them out of their hiding places. But what is a vampire energy device? The obvious offenders are devices that have a standby mode or a display light that indicates it is sucking power. Energy vampire devices also give themselves away with sound. Listen for buzzing, humming, and fan sounds. These are sure indicators that the phantoms are near. They will also give out heat so if an appliance is warm to the touch, look out! It’s an energy vampire.

Arm Yourself
Never go into a battle with a phantom power sucker unarmed. The biggest tool in an energy vampire hunter’s arsenal besides knowledge is the almighty power strip. A simple, cheap power strips is the easiest to use but many of us will forget to power it off before we leave or go to bed. Smart power strips, however, reduce your energy usage by shutting off the power to appliances that go into standby mode. Some of these have dedicated for outlets for those electronics that need to stay on like an alarm or phone. There are also smart chargers that stop drawing power once the appliance is fully charged.

Slay the Energy Vampire

Use smart power strips and chargers to manage your energy use or simply unplug things not in everyday use. Limit idle times or switch to sleep mode. Also consider switching to smart products that draw less energy by using less standby power.   After you follow these steps, your house will be clean of energy vampires, phantom power and ghost loads. Get more tips on finding and fixing home energy leaks.