UNMC LiveGreen — Vampire loads

It’s Halloween and you know what that means: it’s time to talk vampires. No, not Dracula or the dude from the Twilight series, something much spookier. Vampire loads.

Dun Dun Dunnnnnnnnnnnn!

Wait, what’s a vampire load you ask. Well, a vampire load is when an appliance or electronic item draws blood — er — juice, because it’s plugged in, but not in use. Basically, it’s a very scary waste of energy.

Sometimes it’s called phantom power, but it’s a very real thing that wastes millions of dollars each year.

At work, this could include items such as fans, desktop lamps, computers, phone chargers and space heaters. At home it might be your TV, toaster or Barney Rubble nightlight — wait, that last one might be just me.

Anyway, if you’ve taken the LiveGreen pledge, hopefully you already unplug electrical items that aren’t in use. If not, you can take the pledge and start doing so today.