Vampire Appliances: They Want to Suck your Energy!

With our eyes still firmly fixed on our energy bills, you might think you’ve done all you can to keep your bills under control. But did you know some of your appliances might be secretly using power, even when they’re not turned on? These are known as Vampire Appliances, and the culprits may shock you.

What is a vampire appliance?

Vampire appliance refers to any appliance that uses power when it is in standby mode. Normally it does this by showing a red standby light.

While you may not think a small red LED will cause a big issue, the Birmingham Mail has recently reported that the average household could save £147 a year on your yearly energy bills.

Most common vampire appliances

Unfortunately the worst offenders are commonly found in homes and businesses, and you may even have multiple of each type.

• Televisions
• Satellite boxes
• Microwaves
• Gaming consoles
• DVD players
• Computers
• Chargers (like for phones and laptops)
• Printers

Televisions are the most expensive, costing around £24.61 per year. Satellite boxes cost £23.10, microwaves cost £16.37, and games consoles cost £12.17.

Remember – these costs are just to have your appliances turned off!

What can you do?

The cheapest and most simple solution is to switch your vampire appliances off at the plug when they’re not in use, rather than leaving them on standby.

Alternatively, you could invest in a timer or app controlled plug. This means you can have greater control over when your appliances are turned on. For example, if you still want the convenience of using a remote to turn your TV on, you can simply set the plug to turn on when you’re at home and be turned off when you’re out.

While you might be reluctant to buy new plugs, they will pay for themselves! For example, this Robus Plug is around £16.95, so plugging it into 1 television would begin saving you money in just over 6 months.