Do You Have any Vampire Electronics?

They Suck Money

How many vampires do you have in your home?

None? Bogus you say? Vampires are hokey fable, right? Actually we all have vampires around us, living right in our home - vampire electronics.

"All devices have the potential to be vampire devices in the sense that it's really the characteristic of sucking extra electricity while they're in standby mode," says Assistant U.S. Energy Secretary Alexander Karsner.

Vampire electronics can be DVD players, coffee makers, microwave ovens even electric toothbrushes. They utilize microchips to suspend full power operation while in suspended standby mode. In other words, when we shut them off, they're never really off and continue sucking expensive electricity from your home. In simple terms, they suck.

Of course this has definite advantages. Coffee makers that are programmed to serve up piping hot fresh java in the morning as we're still getting out of the shower, or DVD players which spring to life and recall where we stopped watching that film the previous night or previous week. It's certainly convenient, but it's costing money along with draining energy reserves in a global climate that shouldn't waste energy. We're more aware of energy demands on the world than ever before. Vampire electronics, although modern marvels, compound energy problems by silently sucking away precious electricity.

It's estimated that each home has anywhere from 10 to 50 of these energy sucking vamps. In combination, the expense can add as much as a full month onto our power bills. We've all wondered why our utility bills seem to just keep on rising. Vampire products play a definite role in that equation.

Is anyone doing anything to combat the problem? The federal government has stated that they will be staking vampire electronic products wherever they see them. Back in 2001, President Bush said, "We expect our agencies to be ridding themselves of these vampires." President Bush ordered federal government agencies to use products that require no more than one watt in standby.