Watch out for 'vampire power' this Halloween

While you'll likely see some monsters trick-or-treating over Halloween, you might also have vampires lurking inside your home — especially if you love your gadgets.

Often referred to as "vampire power," plugged-in products can still "suck" electricity even though they're switched off — as much as 25% of its full power, in fact.

Your smartphone, for example, is probably fully charged after 45 minutes, but perhaps you leave it plugged into an AC socket all night. This isn't good for your wallet or the environment.

Some products are worse than others. Along with kitchen appliances, which are the main culprits, other common electricity vampires include televisions, cable boxes, Blu-ray players, game consoles, printers and computers.

• What to do?

There are a number of ways to help fight "vampire power," also referred to as "standby power" or "phantom power."

For one, you can simply unplug the gadgets from the wall when you're not using them or when your devices have finished charging. Manually unplugging devices is the cheapest way to handle electricity vampires, but it requires you to stay on top of it.

New power strips have features that can help. Smart power strips have the ability to cut power to a gadget 100% — thus fighting back against "vampire power" — but since you'll want some gadgets with access to power, like a DVR (or else your shows won't be recorded) some outlets on this strip won't cut off power 100%, while others do.

Belkin offers a line of eco-centric products. The Conserve Power Switch ($7.99) is the most basic unit, with a simple on-and-off switch to kill power to the one device plugged into it. The Conserve Socket ($9.99), on the other hand, has a timer to kill power to whatever is plugged into it after 30 minutes, three hours or six hours (ideal for smartphone chargers, coffee makers, heaters and humidifiers).

The Wi-Fi enabled WeMo Insight Switch ($59.99) lets you turn electronics or small appliances on or off, program custom notifications or set up scheduling to automate your home. It can also monitor your electronics and appliances and send information about the device's energy usage — and how much that energy costs — directly to your smartphone or tablet.

• Other tips

Consumer electronics branded with the Energy Star logo have been tested and verified to be more energy efficient. You should see that familiar sticker on the box and product itself. When in doubt, ask a salesperson or write to the manufacturer. An Energy Star-certified product doesn't mean it doesn't still consume power when turned off, mind you, but will generally be more eco-friendly.

Some products go above and beyond the Energy Star specification. A couple of Samsung's smart TVs, such as the F8000 Series, utilize an integrated camera to sense if someone is in the room or not. If the television doesn't detect anyone watching it, it will ask loudly "Do you want to turn the TV off?" and if you yell "yes" — perhaps while walking to your bedroom for the rest of the evening — the television will turn itself off. Similarly, many Samsung TVs also house an "Eco Sensor," which can adapt its picture according to the intensity of the light in the room to save on energy.

Another smart solution is the Nest Learning Thermostat (from $249). This thermostat learns your schedule (such as leaving the home at 7:45 a.m. every day), programs itself and can be controlled from your phone (iOS and Android) — lowering your heating and cooling bills up to 20%, says Nest Labs (now owned by Google).

Finally, when Intel launched its 4th Generation Intel Core processors in 2013, the chipmaker announced the largest ever generation-over-generation battery life gains at around 1.5 times, on average, based on internal testing against 3rd Gen Core processor-based systems. As a result, many of today's laptops sip rather than gulp power, and yield well over nine hours of use or more than nine days in "sleep mode" on a single charge.

Intel's newest Core M processors go even further, with second generation energy-sipping 3D transistors cutting idle power another 60% and delivering more than 14 hours of battery life in some systems announced for the upcoming holiday season.

Have any other energy-saving tips to share? Be sure to leave your suggestions in the Comments section.

Follow Marc on Twitter: @marc_saltzman. E-mail him at techcomments@usatoday.com.