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Vampower

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Want to hear something really scary? Some estimates say that up to 25% of your energy bill goes to phantom power, or what Good Magazine calls Vampire Energy. You know your DVD player -- the one that has the clock blinking the wrong time because you don't know how to set it? Well that DVD player isn't actually off.  It's sucking power even though it's in "stand-by" mode.

Vampire Energy, or what I've dubbed Vampower, means that a whole bunch of your electronics and appliances are using energy even when they are "off."  Good Magazine has a clever graph-ic that shows how much energy is being sucked out annually by various appliances in your home [click the pic]. Vampower is estimated to cost U.S consumers $3 billion a year. 

One of the easiest things you can do is plug your various appliances into a power strip with a master on-off switch. That way you can truly turn the stuff off without it going into stand-by mode.
Posted on Friday, February 29, 2008 at 02:11PM by Registered CommenterBurke Sisco | CommentsPost a Comment

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