Vampire detector

A single straw, so the story goes, broke the camel’s back. Well…sort of. The point of the story is that little things add up. Straw is light, but if you keep adding single pieces, eventually there’ll be one too many and down goes the camel.

The same is true of energy waste. According to the U.S. Department of Energy, a desktop computer in standby consumes about 310 kWh of electricity annually, a cordless phone about 30 kWh, and a plasma TV a whopping 1450 kWh. That’s about $160 a year in electricity alone.

Is that a lot? If you’re talking about one family home, and they can absorb higher utility bills…then, no. Not really. Neither is one single straw. Overall U.S. citizens spend an extra $3 billion a year on devices they aren’t even using – energy “vampires.”

What’s the solution? Everyone could just pay better attention to what’s plugged in…but let’s be realistic. If the problem is too many things plugged in for too long, the obvious answer is to plug something else in.

Enter the Vampire Detector. Spanish inventors have worked out a way to detect, and shut off, devices in standby. Even better, it allows them to start back up without the boot-up sequence – the reason most people use the standby setting instead of shutting down.

The clever inventors patented the algorithm as Good for You, Good for the Planet. Planted in a chip, it can work with power strips, or be installed directly in electronic devices. Prototypes are being tested in Spain right now, and if it works, expect to see it hit the market shortly thereafter.

A few less pieces of straw will do us all some good.