The Palisadian-Post has partnered with locally founded environmental organization Resilient Palisades to deliver a “green tip” to our readers in each newspaper. This edition’s tip was written by Lisa Kaas Boyle, an environmental attorney, co-founder of Plastic Pollution Coalition and member of the Resilient Palisades Zero Waste team.
As Halloween approaches, it’s timely to ask if you have vampires in your home. Not the kind that could win you a prize in the Palisadian-Post’s Creep Your Crypt contest. Resilient Palisades is alerting you to very real “Energy Vampires” that are draining your electricity year-round.
There is a significant cost in energy consumption of a device left plugged in after it has been fully charged. The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory showed that almost all the electronics we use consume electricity even when off or idle, and even when fully charged.
A fully charged cell phone plugged into the wall is consuming about 2.24 watts, or 60% of the power it consumed while charging. A charged laptop that’s still plugged in consumes 29.48 watts, 66% of the 44.28 watts consumed while charging. If you left it plugged in all year, it would consume as much electricity as running your coffeemaker for 12 days straight.
A 2015 NRDC study showed that “idle load electricity”—computers in sleep mode, digital video recorders, even certain kinds of electrical outlets—account for 23% of power consumption in the average household and represent roughly one quarter of your electricity bill.
Energy Vampires don’t just cost you money: Did you know that three pounds of carbon emissions are emitted from the average two-person household on a daily basis for appliances that are turned off?
You don’t need garlic or a silver stake to defeat Energy Vampires. Here are some NRDC-recommended solutions, in addition to simply pulling the plug from the wall when you aren’t using a device:
Get a power strip. Speakers, TVs and other entertainment gadgets consume electricity when you’re not using them. Plug them into a power strip, and you can flip them all on or off in a split second.
Use timers. Plugging devices into timers will save you from having to remember to turn things on and off. This works particularly well with items you only use at specific times, like coffee makers or heated towel racks. Devices like computers have built-in timers that can power down the machine automatically. Use them aggressively.
Activate a few power-saving settings. On a new TV, select the “home” or “standard” mode when setting up the device. The “vivid” or “retail” options will make your TV overly bright and consume excess power.
On your computer, monitor or game console, disable the screensaver and turn on the auto power down option (if available). Also turn off the “quick start” or “instant-on” option. It’s nice that your TV or video game console can spring into action in a few seconds, but the energy grid pays dearly for that service.
Ditch your old set-top box and DVR. You can stream programming directly via an app on your smart TV or through a low power-consuming streaming device like Apple TV or Roku stick instead.
If you prefer to keep your set-top boxes and DVRs, call your cable, satellite or telephone company and ask to update your setup with new IP-based equipment, which is more up to date and environmentally friendly.
Buy a power meter or have your utility provider install a smart meter. Knowledge is power—or, in this case, saves power. These cheap and simple gadgets can tell you how much energy a device is using when sitting idle, which gives you the option of changing your behavior.
Alternatively, smart meters measure electricity consumption in small intervals and can tell you how much energy you’re using when everything appears to be turned off.
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