Vampire power has become a very serious problem over the past few years, especially for those who are environment-friendly and want to minimize their carbon footprint on Mother Nature. The term refers to the energy that some electrical appliances draw from sockets, even when turned off or in stand-by mode. The Good for You, Good for the Planet company developed a new tool to counteract this issue, the Standby Kill Chip, which uses a very precise algorithm to detect when a device goes into stand-by, and then shuts it down.
The gadget can be installed either in the appliances themselves, or on the power strips. Its only necessity is to be connected to the power grid. It can exert its influence on cell phones, television sets, washing machines, dishwashers and microwave ovens alike. The amount of energy that can be saved is huge, its designers say. And the technology will be readily available, at affordable prices, as soon as it passes its test stages, currently underway in over 50,000 rooms belonging to NH Hotels SA, in Spain.
Another great feature of the new chip is that it totally cuts the electricity supply to the devices it detects as being in stand-by, or hibernating. On the other hand, for further energy conservation, when the devices that were stopped are turned back on, they will not go through start-up again, but enter stand-by immediately. This is very important, because start-up processes, in computers for example, use large amounts of electricity, as all components are required to work during this time.
The strain on the national power grid will also be reduced, which means that fossil fuel-powered electrical plants will be spared from having to work non-stop to fuel an ever-increasing demand. The situation is even worse during peak times, when millions of users plug more than two or three electrical devices in the sockets at the same time, creating a huge surge in the grid. This prompts production centers to increase their output levels, which translates into more carbon dioxide being pumped into the atmosphere.
The concern that some companies have for the environment is the main reason they started combating vampire power in the first place. All devices draw power when connected to the socket, even if they are not operating, but some of them actually do something with it, such as display a clock or other similar functions, while others, such as laptop adapters, simply waste it.
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