It will soon be Halloweenso we ask you to slay the energy vampires and

banish the phantom loads at home and at work

Maynooth Unplugged

Energy vampires and Phantom loads• Energy vampires or phantom loads, refer to

electricity used by home and office electronics and appliances when they are on standby, or seem “off” but are not.

• TVs, VCRs, DVD players, stereos, game consoles, laptops, desktop computers and monitors, anything with a remote, a charger or a clock display, can be an energy vampire. Some devices use nearly as much power on standby as when in use.

How to slay the vampire• Unplug your devices. For small accessible electronics, just

unplug if they're not in use. • Reduce your demand. See if there are electronics in work or

at home that you use very infrequently. • Unplug chargers. Your mobile phone charger, iPod charger,

laptop charger etc. keep drawing electricity even if they are not charging a device.

• Office Equipment should be switched off at the end of the day. A Photocopier left on overnight wastes enough energy to produce over 1,500 copies!