Blog

Stories from the building energy management solution that saves you money.

Zombies, Monsters, and…Vampire Loads? Oh My!

What’s your Halloween costume?



I have a feeling nobody will be dressed as an energy-sucking overnight-running computer monitor.

But if you’re a commercial building engineer — or a cost-conscious homeowner — you can be sure that unknown devices in your building are sucking up energy when you don’t know about it.

These “vampire loads” are feeding on $19 billion of wasted energy each year.



In my home, I use consumer-grade devices to measure energy use at the plug load. After one plug-in, I learned that my DVR draws a constant 40W of power.

I spend almost $50 a year of use just to catch that one can’t-miss episode of The Walking Dead.

For larger commercial facilities, a 24/7 monitoring solution like Verdigris can catch these energy vampires — no garlic required. One customer had no idea that he was spending close to $20,000 every year on ballroom lighting between midnight and 5am. After staff intervention and some retraining, total usage was 18.8% lower over two months.

Overnight zombie dance parties prefer darkness, anyway!

Another great example comes from the W Hotel in San Francisco. Monitoring the kitchen of their award-winning in-house restaurant, Verdigris found many small devices that were never turned off. A TV, a pizza oven, lights in the walk-in freezer or over the stove. These vampire loads collectively added up to over $7,000 of electricity every year.

It may be another sunny day in California, but the vampire loads still lurk. Where are yours?

To learn 15 ways that Verdigris is helping customers get more out of their facilities, check out our white paper!