John recently wrote a post and made a video demonstrating a specialized power strip that can eliminate standby or ‘vampire power’. This refers to electricity consumed by appliances and electronics which are apparently off, but are actually in an energy-leeching sleep mode.
http://www.viddler.com/player/c8968a39/
John is Irish, so bonus points for the (Waterford? Wexford? I can never remember) accent.
In 2006, John’s neighbours in the UK banned standby power, which allegedly accounts for 8% of all domestic usage. I went looking for similar news from Canada, but all I could dig up was this FAQ about toothless ‘standards’.
Here’s a chart that shows the worst culprits–plasma TVs, computers and game consoles.
DarrenBarefoot.com 
John’s a Waterford man. If he was from Wexford you’d think he was from Newfoundland 🙂
Thanks Declan for correcting Darren.
Thanks for the linkage Darren, you’ve made it my most viewed viddler video (well there have only been two) yet.