When you grab your phone from the charger every morning and lazily drop the cord back on to the desk, one would never suspect the wire to have any ulterior, darker motives behind charging your precious iphone. However, it is in fact, a vampire cord! Rest assured you have little risk in being attacked late at night by the charger, but it is making an impact on your life. Chargers and appliances that most all of us utilize on campus continue to use power even while not in use, unnecessarily burning fossil fuels and cash for your microwave to sit there.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) estimates that US consumers and businesses waste over 4 billion dollars annually from this needless standby power. Now some appliances may need to be plugged in continuously, in which case power isn’t necessarily being wasted, but your fans, chargers, microwaves, coffee makers, lamps, and neon beer signs don’t need to be sucking down extra power when you aren’t using them.
The simplest solution is just to unplug the stuff you’re not going to use for a while. Using power strips are a good way to consolidate electronics and allow you to unplug all your little energy thieves at once. Going the distance, you could also buy EnergyStar labeled appliances that meet strict energy requirements before hitting shelves, saving you cash in the long run with lowered energy bills. Unplugging wasteful vampire appliances can save up to 10% on monthly energy bills. Sometimes a little self-awareness is all people need to change their habits and become a little more sustainable.
- Joe
Editor’s Note: This post is one in a series published by students in the Sustainability Learning Community at KU. Additional posts from this series can be found under “LC” on the Categories list.
Elizabeth Bell said,
November 21, 2008 at 1:32 pm
When I lived at home, I would always unplug appliances such as the toaster and cell phone chargers when no one was using them. My parents got irritated at first, but when I told them how much energy it was wasting just to have appliances plugged in they backed down. Appliances that are plugged in use energy 24/7, even when you aren’t using them. And it is so simple to just unplug something. To find more on unplugging appliances, take a look at the Standford University Sustainability Choices site.
Julie Thomas said,
November 23, 2008 at 5:43 pm
I feel like this is one of the better blog entries because it is something that everyone can do and on a day to day basis, and it’s easy. I still am little confused about what Vampire plugs are ( I assume they just keep sucking out juice from the appliance) but I totally agree about using power strips over hundreds of wall plug-ins. I have tried to be really good about unplugging my stuff and also telling my friends to as well. If we all work together it could be a large benefit for all of us. For more unplugging insight, check out this article from the New York Daily News.
- Julie
Monica Routman said,
November 28, 2008 at 4:12 pm
Well done. I have always wondered if chords waste energy when not plugged into anything. I am about to go around my house and unplug everything we aren’t using. In addition to this, we can all turn off the lights during the day, and just use the natural sunlight in rooms with doors and windows. Click here for more “green” lighting details.
-Monica
Rion Glynn said,
December 3, 2008 at 12:25 am
The solution to this problem is good because its easy and it goes a long ways. Its easy for me to forget to unplug my computer because I’m so used to just putting it into sleep mode. While sleep mode is good, it doesn’t save as much energy that unplugging it does.