You may have heard or read about energy vampires, those always-on devices that can increase your consumption of energy without your ever realizing it. These devices and appliances contribute to what’s called “idle load,” which is as wasteful as it is sneaky. The worst offenders are those with a high standby load, or those that are continuously active.

If you’re on the hunt for “energy vampires,” it might be helpful for you to start by clarifying a few terms. You may hear or see terms such as baseload consumption, home idle loads, phantom loads or parasitic loads to describe how these devices consume energy, even when not in use, and contribute to your electrical bill.

Thanks to lots of handy new gadgets that are now on the market, killing an energy vampire is much, much easier. The “energy vampires” in your home are those always-on appliances and other electrical devices that use a shocking amount of energy, even when you’ve turned them off. How to reduce their electrical consumption? Here are our favorite tools:

You do your best to be a responsible energy consumer, but even though you turn off lights as you leave the room and dutifully turn off other appliances and devices when you’re not using them, many of those items, even when not turned on, still require a shocking amount of energy.

Your home means the world to you. After all, it’s where your most cherished possessions and loved ones are held. What if there was a way you could add to what you already have?

Every home owner has one—that long, long list of projects to upgrade your home. Your list might include a kitchen remodel, a new deck or a much-needed coat of paint on the interior walls.

If you’ve been looking for ways to make a difference, installing solar energy can help you use fewer finite resources—and save on energy costs, too.

It’s easy to feel discouraged when reading news about climate change, but discouragement doesn’t have to turn to inaction. In fact, people all over the world are embracing the idea of making a positive difference, and grassroots support for responsible consumption continues to rise.

One of the greatest side benefits of living a “greener” life is that many of the steps you take to reduce your carbon footprint can also help you keep a little bit more “green” in your wallet too.

For many of us, “carbon footprint” is a vague term that can make us feel guilty about our energy use, even while feeling that it isn’t controllable in any tangible way. In fact, though, there are lots of things you can do right now to make your footprint smaller and help the planet stay green and beautiful for generations to come.