Vampire Electronics suck More Energy than you Think
Vampire electronics are those electronic devices in all of our homes that we never turn off, thus sucking energy away. These are devices that we never usually turn off because they are in stand by mode but happens to make up a significant portion of our energy bills. Examples of vampire electronics would be the coffee maker, the microwave, the dvd player, or even your computer. These devices are not in use but something as simple as the the time display on your DVD player or old VCR player are sucking energy like a blood thirsty vampire.
There are even things like cell phone chargers, or chargers of any kind that are actually sucking out energy even if your cell phones or laptops are not charging. The reason is because those chargers are still using electricity to convert power, thus always staying warm. In fact, on average just 5% of the power consumed from cell phone chargers are actually used when your phones are actually charging, the rest of the energy is just wasted!
Most Americans are just just too lazy to unplug and replug appliances all the time. Another inconvenience is the fact that some people enjoy having little digital clocks all around the house and don't want to have to reset them everyday. If you don't care about having 10 clocks strategically placed all around your house then switching appliances to a single power strip and turning everything off at once is a good idea.
Since there hasn't been any significant price hikes with the cost of energy, people don't really seem to care about their energy use. But when gas prices go up 10 cents, everyone seems to freak out. People need to become more aware of their energy consumption and make a plan to reduce their energy consumption to not only save themselves a little money, but to also reduce the amount of energy they receive from coal power plants that emit large amounts of greenhouse gases.
Technorati Tags: global warming
4 COMMENTS, ADD YOURS HERE:
Nice post. There is a great product called Smart Power Strip which you can buy at SmartHomesUSA and a bunch of other places. It knows how to shut down your phathom energy loads. I wrote a post about it on my website called "How to lessen your carbon footprint without working at it." Take a look and it will explain how this device works. I also think Fake Plastic Fish talks about where you can buy these devices reconditioned so they are cheaper. anna www.green-talk.com
There is another great blog post on these phantom power burners here...
http://greenpieceblog.blogspot.com/2007/04/phantom-of-vcr.html
These are one of the worst things for our environment. Myself and a team of high school students are trying to make people more aware of this horrible topic. Please visit us at http://vampireelectronics.wordpress.com
You've got it right! So much energy is just wasted for nothing and so much pollution is caused by producing this wasted/lose/lost energy.
I believe, there should have been much more done by the government about strict technological conditions for all electric/electronic devices, which could be on sale in the country.
That means just basic use of the power/authority for planning - higher technical standards, which should include strict, automatic saving modes in all devices.
Government could also afford 'total media bombardment' about energy saving tips for all citizen in educational/preventive purpose.
p.s.
More efficient use of energy is far the best, the cheapest and the easiest way of lowering carbon emissions and other pollution.
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