I was shocked to discover the worst “energy vampire” in my house

You’ve probably heard about Energy vampires – Appliances, appliances and other electronics that draw electricity even when turned off.

This leech is called reserve power, and it can be a big expense: according to US Department of Energystandby power accounts for 5% to 10% of residential energy use and can cost a typical household about $100 per year.

With that in mind, I decided to launch an experiment. I ordered a Power meter $12 from Amazon I started measuring the negative power draw of almost every device I could connect it to.

My mission: to determine which ones waste the most energy during a stop, and whether it’s worth firing the worst offenders. The clear winner surprised me because it was an unexpected piece of living room technology that almost everyone owns.

How did you experience vampire energy drain?

There were some limitations to the project, most notably that I wasn’t able to test the washer, dryer, or oven. These use large 240V outlets, and the power meter I purchased only works with standard NEMA 5-15R outlets. I also couldn’t test my refrigerator properly, because there’s no way to turn it off while it’s plugged in.

However, I’ve tested almost every other device in my home that can be turned off, put into sleep, or standby. I visited my home, testing every fixture and appliance, including the outdoor LED light strips I recently installed.

Common household energy vampires

I decided to sort my results room by room. Finally, I ended up testing the technology in my home office, living room, kitchen, bedroom, and outdoor lighting strips. This is what I found.

Home office

Let’s start with the hideout of some of the top suspects on my list: my home office. I do the vast majority of my work and spend a fair amount of my downtime there, and I have a power-hungry setup that includes my desktop, laptop, and a 60-inch TCL TV, along with an 18-inch monitor.

As you might expect, there were some power-hungry devices during the setup process. Some of the most consuming devices in my home were in my home office, including my custom-built desktop computer, which, when completely turned off, consumed between 1.8 and 2 watts. When left idle in sleep mode, this rose to 3.1 watts.

The laptop was also the main culprit. 2025 version of Frame 16 laptop It consumes between 0.5 and 1.3 watts when off and 1.9 watts in sleep mode. While these were some of the highest negative codes, keep in mind that these numbers are still very low. For context, my refrigerator, while running in medium cooling mode, consumed 509 watts.

I was surprised by the giant’s efficiency TCL 4K TV 60 inchwhich showed a power draw of 0 watts when connected to the meter. Interestingly, the smaller 18-inch 1080p HP Omen display did draw a tiny amount of power, though just 0.1 watts.

There’s also an Echo Dot on my desk, Amazon’s gateway to its Alexa smart assistant, which is always passively listening for voice prompts (and for everything else, if you listen to the conspiracy theorists). I wasn’t surprised to find that the Dot attracted a 1.7-watt phantom load even while not in active use.

I also keep to myself Nintendo Switch In my office, it dropped by 0.8 watts when off and 1.3 watts during sleep mode. These numbers remain the same whether the Switch is physically docked or in handheld mode. I also tested my Canon printer, which showed a draw of 0.2 watts.

I was pleasantly surprised to find that none of the chargers in my office, whether for the cordless vacuum or the USB-C and USB-A devices, draw any negative power at all.

I also tested my own Router In two configurations. While completely turned off but plugged in, it showed zero watts of draw. When I turned it on and made sure there were no direct connections from any device, its power rose to 4.3 watts. This represents the router’s active idle power, not passive phantom load, so it’s not included in the final “power vampire” rating, but it gives you an idea of ​​how much power the router is using even when it’s not connected.

living room

Second on my list of concerns was the living room, which also contained a number of electronic devices that I suspected might be very power-hungry. I have another TV there, so I started with it to see if it could match the zero-watt power draw of the TCL in my office. Unfortunately, that didn’t happen. Although it is smaller (slightly larger 50 inch 4K RCA TV), showed a negative power draw of 0.3 watts. It’s not huge, but it’s a bit disappointing after TCL’s presentation.

I moved to PlayStation 5 controller And I tested it in sleep mode and while completely turned off. When turned off, it registered a measly 0.1 watts, although it jumped to 1.5 watts in rest mode.

The real surprise here was the cable box. Although you can never turn it off completely, as there is always a digital clock display and includes a DVR for recording scheduled shows/movies, there is a distinct on and off mode. While I didn’t expect it to draw much more than other electronics in rest mode, like gaming consoles or PCs, it showed a massive (relatively) 19.9W draw while off.

Aside from the DVR’s aforementioned capacity, the large phantom load is likely due to it being kept at a relatively high power state to ensure instantaneous operation. Because we expect our TVs to start showing a channel almost immediately after turning on the cable box, many boxes are kept at a higher power state than other devices.

On the other end of the spectrum, I also tested a number of lamps in the living room (and throughout the house). I tried standard table lamps with on/off switches, a larger floor lamp, and a lamp with three brightness settings and touch activation. Each bulb, regardless of size or activation type, showed a power draw of zero watts.

kitchen

The kitchen is also a fairly goal-rich environment, given the number of appliances you have connected at any given time. Although there was a fair range of results, none of the devices I tested showed particularly high drain.

The thirstiest beast in my kitchen was him MicrowaveWhich recorded 0.5 watts. Below was mine Drip coffee makerat 0.3 watts, my big Air fryerat a rather meager rate of 0.2 watts. the Electric kettlewhich I tend to leave plugged in for convenience even though I don’t use it regularly, showed no negative drag at all.

Most surprising was my full-size mobile dishwasher, which plugs into an outlet and attaches directly to the sink, but can be rolled around the kitchen on four wheels. Based on its size and power (and the cacophony it emits during operation), I was expecting a high phantom load, but it impressed with the 0-watt draw.

Bedroom

Finally were the bedrooms, which did not have a lot of electronic devices (sleep hygiene is important, and Blue light can ruin your comfort). There are some phone chargers and flashlights, and none of them showed any negative draw.

I have it too Moisturizer In my room, which I tested despite not typically leaving it plugged in; It also did not show any negative drawdown. The spare room is home to an alarm clock that showed zero watts of draw, plus Essential oil diffuser Which didn’t draw any power when turned off.

Before I wrapped up my work, I went out to test one of the 50-foot LED strips I currently have installed outside. They showed a relatively high negative draw of 1.2 watts.

Ranking of the worst offenders in my house

After some fairly extensive testing, the surprise “winner” among the power suckers was the DirecTV cable box. With a passive power of 19.9 watts, it outpaced all the others by a large margin, because, as mentioned above, it has a digital video recorder (DVR) and instant playback capabilities (although it clearly didn’t record anything during testing). At 19.9 watts, this means the box draws about 477.6 watt-hours (Wh) each day, and 174.3 kilowatt-hours (kWh) each year.

So, roughly, how much does this cost me annually? I pay about 16.4 cents per kWh, so if I left the cable box off (no recording), it would cost me $27.89 per year for those 174.3 kWh.

Less surprising was the runner-up Desktop computercoming in at 3.1 watts in sleep mode (and 1.8-2 watts when fully off). What was surprising were some of the unpowered appliances, especially the large portable dishwasher, and the TCL 60-inch flat-screen TV.

Here’s the full list, from highest to lowest:

Energy Vampire Energy Draw

Device/Device	Pull power (W)
Cable box (passive mode)	19.9 watts
Desktop (sleep/shutdown)	1.8 – 2W/3.1W
Laptop Framework 16 (Sleep/Sleep)	0.5 – 1.3W/1.9W
Echo point (passive mode)	1.7 watts
PlayStation 5 (Pause/Sleep Mode)	0.1W/1.5W
Nintendo Switch (Pause/Sleep)	0.8W/1.3W
LED light bar	1.2 watts
Microwave	0.5 watts
TV (50 inch 4K RCA)	0.3 watts
Coffee maker	0.3 watts
Air fryer	0.2 watts
Printer	0.2 watts
Screen (18 inches, 1080p HP Omen)	0.1 watt
TV (60 inch 4K TCL)	0 watts
Mobile dishwasher	0 watts
Table/floor/touch lamps	0 watts
Electric kettle	0 watts
Device chargers (not connected)	0 watts

Who are the energy vampires that are really worth killing?

The unfortunate truth is that many devices need to remain plugged in even when not in active use, at least if you prefer convenience over some relatively modest savings.

This includes my worst offender, the cable box. Disconnecting it means it can’t record scheduled shows or movies, and it also has to go through a long and annoying boot cycle every time. This results in a 5-10 minute delay – something I don’t want to sit through when I want to watch TV in the living room, although I’ll probably turn it off when I’m leaving for a vacation or long business trip. Things like refrigerators, many smart devices, and routers also need to stay connected, for better or worse.

However, there are several ways you can do this Save on energy bills Without seriously disrupting your daily routine.

First, you may want to consider turning off things like gaming consoles and computers completely rather than leaving them in a state of eternal hibernation. This is especially true for older consoles or ones you don’t use frequently, or if you have a desktop and laptop but find that you don’t use one or the other frequently, consider turning them off entirely.

Other big vampires that I don’t personally own are older AV receivers and older printers, which are notoriously not great at regulating power usage. Older appliances in general should be at the top of your list, and you might want to, too Consider a chapter Any kitchen appliances that don’t really need constant off-grid feeding. Do you really need your microwave to tell you the time?

You can also reduce some usage by turning off instant features on consoles and TVs where possible, or using smart plugs with entertainment hub scheduling. Power strips with Remote on/off function They are also a great option to replace old appliances with Newer, more efficient models It can lead to significant savings over time.

As my experience has shown, energy vampires are real, but not all of them drain energy to the same degree.