OKLAHOMA CITY – Vampires may be lurking in your home. They aren’t the cape-wearing villains of horror movies but fanged devices that plug into your outlets and suck your power.
And neither wooden stakes nor garlic will rid you of these in-house Draculas. But there are some simple things you can do this Halloween to keep vampire power from biting into your energy bills. OG&E recommends the following:
Hunt for them in the dark. Vampire devices often emit a ghostly glow, a little red or green light showing that they are in standby mode rather than powered completely down.
Unplug devices you don’t frequently use. If a device is not in use or if it’s totally unnecessary (are you really going to ever use that VCR player again?), unplug it.
Remove chargers from the wall when you're not charging. Your cell phone charger, iPod charger, laptop charger, etc. use electricity even when they aren’t charging. So if your phone says "Charge complete" pull out the charger.
Or, plug your devices and chargers into a power strip. And when you're not using those devices, turn off your power strip.
Use the real on/off switch. Most computers come with one 'soft' power switch on the front, which takes it from “standby” to “on.” Use the real “on/off” switch, located in the back on the power supply (near where the power cord goes in), to make sure your computer is turned completely off.
Consider more efficient appliances as vampires die. Energy Star takes standby power into account, and their qualified devices draw less than the average when in the "off" mode.
Experts estimate that vampire power consumes anywhere from 5 to 10 percent of an average home's annual power usage. Convert that percentage into dollars, and you've got around $4 billion in wasted spending across America every year, the Department of Energy estimates. For most Oklahomans, that means a potential savings of more than $100 per year--more than some people spend on a typical month's electric bill.
The following table illustrates numbers for average standby modes, showing annually how much electricity is sucked out in kilowatt hours and the estimated costs. Active (the VCR is off but programmed to record something) or passive (the clock on the microwave is still ticking) standby modes are also indicated:
Device |
Kilowatt hours used |
Cost per year |
Mode (passive or active) |
Radio |
13.1 kWh |
$1.44 |
Passive |
Cordless phone base station |
28.9 kWh |
$3.18 |
Passive |
LCD Monitor |
22.8 kWh |
$2.51 |
Passive |
Computer |
311 kWh |
$34.21 |
Passive |
Laptop |
144.5 kWh |
$15.90 |
Passive |
Laser Printer |
133 kWh |
$12.43 |
Passive |
Plasma TV |
1,452.4 kWh |
$159.76 |
Active |
VCR |
92 kWh |
$10.12 |
Active |
DVD Player |
78.8 kWh |
$8.67 |
Active |
Game Console |
233.9 kWh |
$25.73 |
Active |
Convection microwave |
35 kWh |
$3.85 |
Passive |
Rechargeable toothbrush |
12.3 kWh |
$1.35 |
Passive |
OG&E is Oklahoma's largest utility, serving more than 775,000 customers in a service area spanning 30,000 square miles in Oklahoma and western Arkansas. OG&E is a subsidiary of Oklahoma city-based OGE Energy Corp. (NYSE: OGE), which also is the parent company of Enogex LLC, a midstream natural gas pipeline business with principal operations in Oklahoma.
Contact:
Brian Alford
(405) 553-3187
