A lot of us leave electronic devices plugged in when we're not using them and don't give

it a second thought.

But many everyday items can drain energy even when they're turned off.

Things like coffee machines, video game consoles and laptop charges.

They account for between 5 and 10 percent of nationwide home energy use.

Stephanie Syr spoke with Alexis Abramson, Dean and Professor at the Climate School in Columbia University to learn more about the effect of these so-called vampire devices.

Alexis, thank you so much for joining us.

So what exactly is a vampire device and what are some of the everyday culprits

we might find in our homes? So vampire are sometimes called phantom load devices essentially

are devices that consume electricity when they're plugged in, but maybe not actively in use.

So they might appear off, but they're still

drawing a small amount of electricity. So TVs are common culprits, game consoles, streaming devices,

computers, monitors, even phone and laptop chargers and smart appliances, coffee makers, microwaves with those clocks on

them all can contribute to phantom loads. One quick question. If you turn off a power strip,

is it still drawing energy as well? Usually not. So a power strip is usually not drawing much,

maybe a tiny amount of electricity when it's off.

But today there are things called smart power strips or smart plugs.

And you can actually program those to turn on and off in various parts of the day.

So maybe you leave the office at 6 p.m. You come back in at 8.m.

And they actually can be programmed to be completely off or near completely off during that time period.

So how much energy is being wasted this way? So relatively speaking, it's a small amount of energy

per electronic device or per appliance.

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