It’s National Vampire Power Awareness Day! Do you know what vampire power is? You don’t know what that is? Neither did I until Michelle Hsu contacted me to let me know that Best Buy had declared October 30, 2008 National Vampire Power Awareness Day in an effort to help consumers be aware of and reduce energy consumption.

Vampire Power is the energy used by appliances when they’re turned off or in standby mode. Michelle gave me some interesting statistics as to how much energy the U.S. actually uses when appliances are turned off.

For instance:

  • Forty percent of all electronic and appliance power is consumed when they are shut off.
  • The average American home has approximately 20 to 40 electronics plugged in that abuse vampire power.
  • Roughly $4 billion annually across the United States is spent on electricity lost to “vampire power,” according to the International Energy Agency.

Now those are some scary statistics! I’ll admit that I use way too much vampire power. I am notorious for not turning my computers (yes, that’s plural) off at night, and I don’t unplug my small appliances at night either.

Best Buy suggests plugging all appliances into a power strip and unplugging the power strip at night to make it easier to conserve power. They also suggest unplugging chargers (such as cell phone and battery chargers) when not in use.

So I’m up for the challenge! How about you? Will you make an effort to reduce the vampire power you use today? And every day?

Photo by Uriel 1998.