Vampires could be lurking in your home, and they are out to drain your wallet! Energy vampires — devices that are sucking power even when they appear to be off — cost Americans almost $10 billion a year and account for nearly 12 percent of all U.S. energy use, according to the Environmental Protection Agency.

Most households have cellphones, tablets, and other devices that require special chargers. Even when you unplug your device, you might be surprised to learn that those chargers continue to draw power when plugged into an outlet. Solution: Unplug chargers when not in use.

Television set-top boxes, DVRs, and other entertainment components consume energy even when the TV is off. Solution: Slay this energy vampire with "smart" power strips. These look like standard power strips, but they have one master outlet and allow you to control all the connected devices at once.

Did you know the typical gaming console can use as much energy as a refrigerator, even when it's not in use? Solution: Disable those automatic updates, the most significant source of gaming system energy drain.

With just a few changes, you can take the bite out of energy vampires!