The previous post, Oxfam asks, “What Happened to the Seasons?”,explored the latest climate change report, which captivatingly addresses the personal stories of those suffering. Its overwhelming question of ‘Why?’ arguably has many possible answers; however, a person doesn’t leave the water running when not using it and ask ‘why was the water bill so high?’ or ‘why is there no water left?’. 

While there is a lot of talk surrounding discovering new energy sources, or expanding others – like solar or wind, the first step must be how do we more efficiently use the resources already in place? Likewise, when a new type of energy is discovered, or an existing one is expanded, and that energy is turned into electricity – we still need efficient systems and energy efficient electronic and semiconductor products no matter where the original source of energy comes from.

Take cell phone and mobile device chargers for example, often called ‘wall warts’ – think the little black box that’s plugged into outlets to charge a cell phone. The DOE has noted that wall warts consume about 5% of the electricity used by the average U.S home. This 5% amounts to around 52 Billion kilowatt hours, or the energy produced by 26 average-size power plants! To break it down – the aggregate average U.S. household energy spend for mobile device chargers is $537 Million per month, or almost $6.5 Billion per year, just for mobile device and cell phone chargers! Since most mobile device chargers waste around 80% of the energy they draw, the average total residential dollar amount thrown away on unused, wasted energy is an average $429.6 Million per month, or $5 Billion per year JUST FOR CHARGERS! Think about that, $5 Billion a year on average is wasted due to vampire energy loss that occurs in mobile device chargers in residential homes. Crazy, right? 

Of course, chargers are not only used in homes. They are everywhere in our lives, especially at work. The average U.S. commercial operation spends $537 Million per month due to chargers. That is $6.44 Billion annually. As mentioned above, wall warts waste 80% of the energy they pull from the grid; thus, the money thrown away on wasted energy by U.S. commercial operations is $429.67 Million on average per month, or $5.156 Billion annually! 

On top of the residential and commercial energy waste, U.S. industrial operations have an aggregate average monthly energy appetite for mobile device chargers of $237.8 million, or $3.28 Billion per year. The money that is wasted on mobile device chargers’ vampire energy loss is $219 Million per month on average, or $2.628 Billion per year.

Together, all 3 sectors have a total energy waste of a whopping $1.1 Billion per month on average, or $13.7 Billion per year!!!

It is important to note that most industry experts agree that 5% is a relatively low estimate for commercial and industrial operations, but it is important to Vampire Labs that numbers are not inflated for impact.

It is also necessary to understand that mobile device chargers, or wall warts, are only the tip of the vampire energy loss iceberg. Many other vampire electronics and vampire mechanical devices are present in households and commercial and industrial operations that are not accounted for in the before mentioned data. Those figures only speak to mobile device chargers.

According to John Donovan, an energy efficiency expert and the Editor-in-Chief of Low-Power Design, “Increasing the energy efficiency of chargers by 50% would have a huge impact on energy consumption and greenhouse gas reduction.” Vampire Labs aims to eliminate the energy waste altogether, and his next statement especially fuels our fire, “The U.S. electronics industry needs to make a coordinated attack on power consumption, starting with the design of ultra-low power systems” and that “the green future depends on emerging technologies and energy efficient, low power designs.”