Idle Electronics and Appliances Waste $19 Billion Annually, Study Says

Roughly $19 billion worth of electricity — an amount equal to the output of 50 large power plants — is devoured annually in the U.S. by household electronics and appliances when their owners are not actively using them, according to a study by the Natural Resources Defense Council. These always-on but inactive devices account for nearly 23 percent of home electricity use in California, the researchers found after analyzing data from 70,000 residential smart meters. The cost of this so-called “vampire” energy drain, which provides little benefit to consumers, averages $165 per household per year, but it can be as high as $440 in areas with high electricity prices, the study says. Appliances that consume a lot of power when in use, such as heating and cooling systems and refrigerators, accounted for just 15 percent of the vampire consumption. The majority — 51 percent — is drawn by consumer electronics such as televisions, computers, printers, and game consoles.