Success: Slay Energy Sucking Vampires
Keeping in the Halloween spirit, we at Tandem Properties would like to slay some energy-sucking vampires in your life and in your Davis, CA apartment.
Over at Hitched.com, Judith Orloff, MD tells you How to Defend Against 5 Common Emotional Vampires. Here are a few excerpts:
1. The Passive-Aggressive Person. This type of vampire expresses anger with a smile or exaggerated concern, but always maintains their cool. They are experts at sugar-coating hostility.
Silver Bullet Tips: Let go of self-doubt and trust your gut reactions. Tell yourself that you deserve to be treated more lovingly. Address their behavior. In a calm, firm tone you might say, “I would greatly appreciate it if you can be on time when we go out to dinner.” If nothing changes, keep setting limits with this person and scale back on the time you spend with them.
2. The Narcissist. For this vampire, everything is about them. They are ego-centric, self-important, and starved for admiration and attention. They may be charming and intelligent, until their guru status is threatened.
Silver Bullet Tips: Enjoy their good qualities, but have realistic expectations. Their motto is “me-first,” so getting angry or stating your needs won’t have any effect on them. Beware of this type because narcissists lack empathy and are incapable of unconditional love. You may be able to get their cooperation, however, by appealing to their self-interest and showing them how your request will benefit them.
While we’re working the vampire theme, we’ve told you previously that UC Davis has instructors that are experts in Halloween themed areas such as Halloween decorations, Zombies, Bats and bugs, Halloween candy and pumpkin science.
One that caught our eye was this:
Vampire power: scary all year-round
Everyone knows you use wooden stakes and garlic to kill the usual vampires, but how do you defeat energy vampires? Available to discuss “vampire power” are energy efficiency experts Anthony Eggert, director of the UC Davis Policy Institute for Energy, Environment and the Economy; and Alan Meier, a UC Davis visiting scientist from Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. Vampire power is the power used by your electronics — television, DVR, cellphone charger, etc. — when they are turned off or not performing their primary functions. Today, vampire power accounts for about 5 percent of household electricity consumption and nearly 10 percent in California homes. Eggert and Meier can discuss energy-saving opportunities to reduce vampire loads, and technological innovations that could influence future energy use and guide state standards and energy policy.
And if you want to slay the energy vampires in your Davis apartment, check out this web site. Duke Energy has created an energy vampire calculator. Now the rates in the calculator are for the American south but they can give you an idea about your yearly energy costs in your Davis or Woodland apartment.