Energy vampires and zombies are appliances in your home that use electricity even when turned “off” or in standby mode. These culprits syphon off more energy than you're probably aware of, cost your wallet heftily over time.

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:

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