Several recent Hohm blog posts have mentioned energy vampires, including Holly’s post on energy saving ideas for Father’s Day and a recent Ask the Expert piece on efficiency tips for apartment dwellers. But just what is an energy vampire?

First, some good news: no need to stock up on garlic and wooden stakes. An energy vampire is simply an appliance or electronic device—think your TV or microwave—that uses small amounts of energy 24 hours a day, even when it isn’t turned on. This energy is called standby power. And you’d be surprised how many devices around your home are sucking up energy even when you’ve shut them off.

Take a look around your home. Do you have devices that use remote controls? Have LED displays? Have those little black cubes as part of the cord—maybe on a laptop? These clues give you an indication of those devices that are most likely to be using standby power. For more detailed information on how to spot the energy vampires lurking in your home, try the Lawrence Berkeley National Lab’s standby power website. The site is chock full of great resources, including a chart that provides a list of possible standby power culprits and their average energy use when off.

To really get serious about energy vampires, one option is energy-monitoring devices that can track the electricity use of a single appliance (like the Kill-A-Watt) or your overall electricity consumption (like the Blue Line PowerCost Monitor). These handy devices can track your energy use, including standby power, in real time. And once you have an idea of how much standby power your home is using, you can figure out ways to lower it. Plug some of your worst energy vampires into power strips that can easily be turned off every evening before bed. Better yet, unplug rarely used energy vampires until they’re needed.

Can standby power be avoided? Maybe not. It’s pretty handy for some things to be ready for you at a moment’s notice (like, for example, your remote-controlled garage door opener on a rainy day). But you can take steps to minimize your current standby power use. And, for future purchases, you can look for products with an Energy Star label, many of which also have low standby power.

Image source: CarbonNYC

Amy Foster Parish is on staff with the Washington State University Extension Energy Program. In her spare time, she enjoys unplugging her appliances while pretending to be Buffy the Vampire Slayer.