Just like a traditional bloodsucker, you have to invite these energy vampires into your home, and once they’re in, they’re going to do their best to drain your power and your money.
It’s easy to think that once you turn an appliance or electronic equipment off, it stops using power, but unfortunately, that’s not true. They continue to passively use your energy, earning them the name “energy vampires.” Although many devices have “sleep” or “standby power” settings, they still leak energy. It’s estimated that these power drains incur as much as 10-20% of an average household’s electric bill. (1)
There are several energy vampires at work in your home, so let’s look at the top offenders (but there are still plenty more).
Top Offenders
Appliances that typically waste the most power include:
Furnace and Air Conditioner
Unsurprisingly, your furnace and air conditioner are the top power drains – about 47% – but you can still exert a little control over how much they consume. If you’re out of the house all day, turn the furnace down (somewhere in the low 60s would be a good number). Once you get home and bump up the thermostat, your house should warm up quickly.
You can push the a/c setting into the 70s while you’re out. Otherwise, you’re just paying to keep an empty house cold for no one. But, if you can’t stand the thought of waiting for a stuffy house to cool down, you can find digital timers for thermostats — you can set the a/c to kick on a half-hour or so before you return home — for $35 or so. It’ll stop the quick drain and save you money in the long run.
Water Heater
Your water heater is the next biggest mouth you’re feeding, tipping in at about 14% of your energy use. Like the furnace and a/c, you can adjust the temperature on your water heater by a couple of degrees. Your bathwater will still be hot, just not as hot, but you’ll save a few dollars. Otherwise, this accounts for about 14% of your wasted energy.
Washer/Dryer
Also, your washer and dryer are doing their best to empty your bank account at 13% of your power drains. You can save a little money here by washing your clothes in cold water instead of hot, and you can experiment until you find the lowest setting, and your dryer can still effectively dry your clothes.
Other Energy Wasters
There are also items in your house that, while they are not on the list of top offenders, cumulatively also drain your money, and there’s something you can do to reduce their energy use. They include:
Lighting
Use low-wattage bulbs and energy-saving bulbs when possible, and turn the lights off when you leave that room.
Chargers
This one would shock you. Do you leave your charger plugged into a socket next to the couch? It’s so convenient, but it also pulls juice, even when charging nothing. Just unplug it.
Television, Satellite or Cable Box/Dvr, and Blu-Ray Player
This one’s a three-fer, but probably not a surprise. They all keep feasting away on your electricity, even when they’re all shut off because they’re on standby, just waiting for the signal that activates them, and they need the power to keep their LED displays running. (2) It’s not awful, but it still accounts for about 3% of your power drains.
Game Consoles
If you’ve ever shut down your console before completely exiting your last session or sidequest, you’re losing energy because the system stays on, which allows you to pick up where you left off without losing all those points. (3)
Computer and Printer
Let’s face it: we probably all just leave the computer running all day long, whether we’re sitting at the screen or not, because it goes into sleep mode, and it’s easier to wake it up than to go through the whole shutdown/log back in the process. But as it keeps running, it also raises your electric bill. If the monitor has a separate power supply, that’s another drain for your money.
And do you turn your printer completely off, or just put it in standby mode? It will pull even more energy if it’s a wireless WiFi printer because it needs to maintain that signal connection. (4)
Refrigerator/Freezer
Unless you like melted ice cream and rancid lunchmeat, there’s not much you can do about this one except find an interior setting for the refrigerator and freezer that still keeps food preserved. But this may be the best 4% you’re paying for your energy costs.
Microwave, Stove, Coffee Maker, and Clock Radio
All these items have clocks that stay on even when the item is not in use. They are all energy vampires.
The Garlic and Crucifix to Energy Vampires
Other than unplugging all power drains — which is highly impractical — there are still a few preventative steps you can take to save money.
1. Slowly switch over to Energy Star appliances. Energy Star in a device is the EPA certification that it meets energy-efficiency requirements. Older appliances will be less energy-efficient, so that might be an excellent place to start to cut off the drain of your money.
2. Surge protectors. If you plug several big energy offenders into the same strip, you can turn them all off with a straightforward flick of the switch. This will at least make sure that your equipment’s vampirism is about on par with unplugged devices.
3. Get a TV Standby Killer. It plugs into any wall socket, and your TV plugs into that. When you turn your TV off using the remote, the infrared sensor in the standby killer shuts it off, so it isn’t in standby mode. (5)
4. Get an audit of the power consumption in your home. Your electric company may offer a free, energy-saving audit of your home, telling you where the big power drains are coming from and how to stop them.
Get a Minute Loan Center Loan
The journey to reducing the power drains in your home involves unplugging appliances and switching to modern energy-efficient devices. You may replace one item at a time or do a complete overhaul. If you need a loan to make your home energy-efficient and stop the drain of your money, contact us. Minute Loan Center has a variety of low-cost personal loans for you. Apply for a loan!
Kevin brings over 15 years of experience in marketing, with a specialized expertise in growing online businesses. As the Director of Marketing at a leading FINtech company, he employs innovative strategies to enhance brand visibility and customer engagement. Kevin’s passion lies at the intersection of technology and finance, where he pioneers solutions that not only meet but exceed consumer expectations. His commitment to leveraging his expertise ensures impactful results and the building of lasting relationships in the digital landscape.
