The EE Glossary: Vampire Power & Stand-By Power

What has two sharp ‘teeth’ and thrives on sucking the energy out of another entity? If you guessed ‘vampire’, you’re right! Unfortunately, these nasty creatures can stick around your house long after Halloween. Nicknamed ‘vampire power’ for obvious reasons, stand-by power is the electricity consumed by an appliance when the appliance is “off,” but still plugged in.

For example, when a microwave is not heating food, it is running a digital clock. According to Alan Meier of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (LBNL), this uses about 3.1 watts of standby power. Products like TVs, VCRs and satellite boxes use standby power in order to maintain the function of detecting signals from remote controls.

LBNL reports that standby power use in the United States accounts for about 5 percent of all residential electricity use, which suggests that consumers spent about $7 billion in 2006 on residential standby power alone.

The Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007 was the first to legislate on standby power. It requires the U.S. Department of Energy to incorporate standby power use into its appliance standards in the future. LBNL estimates that, for most appliances, 75 percent of standby energy use could be eliminated through technologies.

Be a vampire slayer: Plug your appliances into power strips, which can be turned off by the pull of a plug or at the flick of a switch when the appliances are not in use.