Summary: Sometimes when you turn off your television, computer or cable box, “off” doesn’t really mean “off.” Standby loss, popularly known as “vampire power” or “phantom load,” loses up to ten percent of residential energy in developed countries. For today's EcoMyths segment, Jerome and EcoMyths Alliance president Kate Sackman talk about the phenomenon with Eric Masanet, staff scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and associate professor of engineering at Northwestern University.
