If everyone in the U.S. reduced the standby power in their home, total U.S. carbon emissions would be reduced by 0.3 percent.
Standby power, aka vampire power, is the electricity that our devices and appliances use when they’re just sitting around not being used (think your cable box, DVR, sleeping computer, those LEDs on your microwave and dishwasher).Â
Standby power accounts for about 7.5 percent of the total energy we use in our home–but, it’s very difficult to trim it by more than a third. If everyone were to do things like unplug devices and use switched power strips, we could save as much as 25.5 million tons of pollution. Also, vampires would be less powerful.Â
Photo Illustration by Christopher Furlong/Getty Images
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