There’s a vampire in your house.

In fact, there are many of them. But don’t worry – they’re not interested in you (or your blood).

They want your electricity.

Yup – today, we’re talking about something called “vampire power”. It’s officially known as “standby power” – though it’s also called vampire energy, leaking energy, standby energy, wall warts, idle current, phantom power, ghost load and… well, apparently there are a lot of names for this concept. Thankfully, it’s rather simple!

What is Vampire Power?

“Vampire power” is the energy that your electrical devices consume while not in use.

You’ll find it in everything from TVs and microwaves to phone chargers, AC adapters and more.

Each of these devices only consumes a small amount of power while idle. Although this won’t make a huge dent in your electricity bill (about 10% on average), the combined annual cost of vampire power in the US is approximately $19 billion!

 

And this number has only risen in recent years. With more rechargeable gadgets, computers and devices entering our world, the amount of vampire energy being slowly sucked away is increasing.

But is vampire power a problem? And why does it exist in the first place?

Why do some devices use vampire power?

It all started with televisions back in the 1960s. Back then, TVs took a long time to “warm up” – meaning you had to wait a few minutes before you could actually watch TV after turning it on.

To solve this, engineers came up with a simple solution. They decided to leave certain parts of the television on at all times.

This simple innovation started the era of “instant on” television sets. It didn’t take long for other appliances, such as the microwave, to adopt this technique as well.

 

So, that’s how it started – and why it’s become such a commonplace function. But that still leaves one question…

Do you need to worry about vampire power?

Overall, it’s best to limit vampire power – but you don’t necessarily need to worry much. In fact, vampire power even has some benefits (beyond simply turning on our televisions quickly).

For example, vampire power allows us to power only certain parts of a device or appliance – such as a clock or display screen – without requiring us to fully power the device. In that case, vampire power actually saves energy.

It also powers remote control receivers and other devices that “wait” for some sort of input – allowing them to be ready at all times.

The main downside is, of course, the wasted energy. Some devices also emit electromagnetic fields (EMFs), which increase radiation.

In the past, little was done to control the amount of vampire energy being used. But these days, most devices are designed to limit the energy loss to minimal levels. You can also check for the Energy Star rating, which means the device uses a limited amount of vampire energy.

So! The bottom line is that vampire power is not a serious concern, but it is good to limit it when you can. There’s a simple solution for this: unplug your devices when not in use. While this isn’t entirely necessary, it surely can’t hurt.

And if you’re really serious about limiting wasted energy, you can get yourself the Kill A Watt electricity usage monitor. This device allows you to check your devices’ energy output so you know which items may need to be unplugged while out of use (or even replaced with a lower-energy version).