Many electrical appliances use energy even when switched off. One estimate - by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in the US - suggested that US consumers waste over $3.5bn a year on electricity consumed by products they think are turned off. Power Intergrations, an electronics company based in California, has launched a range of intergrated circuits that, when incorporated into electronic equipment, reduces power consumption. The chips reduce the no-load power consumption of a typical AC adapter by as much as 20 times.