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Looking for energy vampires in your home? Look no further than your gaming system. Chances are, it's sucking power from your walls at right this very moment...

It's estimated that 35-40% of U.S. homes have some type of gaming console, and according to a new report from the NRDC, those game systems consume 16 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity every year.  But, says NRDC, if we take a few easy steps, "we could save approximately 11 billion kWh of electricity per year, cut our nation's electricity bill by more than $1 billion per year, and avoid emissions of more than 7 million tons of CO2 each year."

The first thing to do is look at your habits. It seems that most gamers leave their systems on when they're not in use -- and the devices usually don't have an automatic "sleep mode," so they continue to use as much energy as when you're using them to play a game. So it's important to actually turn your systems off when you're not using them.

Second, see if you can install power-saving features on your device, which will help it to power down after a certain amount of idle time. (See the link above for tips for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3).

Finally, if you're not a gamer yet, think about what system you're going to buy. According to the NRDC, the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 each use nine times more energy than the Nintendo Wii.

Indivudually, these tips won't necessarily save you a whole pile of cash, but when you consider that there are millions of gaming consoles in the U.S. alone, they add up to a huge environmental impact. Do your part, turn your games off, and help save the environment when you're not saving the princess.