Turning things off at the wall!

I never turn off anything at the wall, pc and monitor switch off at night though, nothing on standby. The way I see it is if you spend X mins switching off everything and save Y money doing so, can you earn more then X back in Y mins at work? Stay a few mins extra somewhere you already are, or run around the house as a major inconvenience to save pennies.

Btw, has anyone here ever heard of anyone in the last two decades whos house caught fire through something being plugged in (not switched on)? I've never heard of it happening to anyone I've ever met tbh :p
 
I turn everything I can off. Don't like leaving things on wasting power and the potential safety risk. Yes it's not much, but worth doing all the same IMO.
 
AcidHell2 said:
I'm hopping android will bring the costs down. It needs mass production behind it. It just seems totally skipped over by the public, who see it as a gimmick rather than something useful.

Would love a button I can press that turns everything off, including heating when I go to work.
Or heating that is based on my work Callander(shift work). Or a dimmer light that slowly comes on over half an hour before my alarm goes off. Got a grow box in my room and lights come on at 6 makes such a difference. So for me it's not just energy saving.
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This is why I threw CAT6 all around the house, including the utility room.

I was hoping to eventually wire in the boiler so I could set up custom on-off timings or link it to a control and do it over the internet. Remote heating etc

Some of the scripting on homeautomation.co.uk, with alarm systems and lighting is crazy. Having the drive lights come on if a sensor triggers, picking up movement towards the house, after 7pm and the alarm is deactivated etc. Having the doorbell to divert the loudspeaker to your mobile if there's no one in the house (linked through the room PIRs). Mad :)
 
I always switch the plugs to the router and modem off when leaving the house. The plugs are always warm and sometimes even hot - certainly don't feel comfortable leaving them plugged in and leaving the house. However it appears out of everyone I know I'm the only one who does, most people tend to never switch there router and modem off and leave them on all the time.
 
EVH said:
This is why I threw CAT6 all around the house, including the utility room.

I was hoping to eventually wire in the boiler so I could set up custom on-off timings or link it to a control and do it over the internet. Remote heating etc

Some of the scripting on homeautomation.co.uk, with alarm systems and lighting is crazy. Having the drive lights come on if a sensor triggers, picking up movement towards the house, after 7pm and the alarm is deactivated etc. Having the doorbell to divert the loudspeaker to your mobile if there's no one in the house (linked through the room PIRs). Mad :)
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Street's just popping down to B&Q now to get some of that kit :p
 
my flatmates do this with the tv. its so annoying they seem to think the tele uses as much power on standby as it does on... fail. wish i had a plug kWh meter so i could prove them wrong
 
Turn off my monitor and speakers at the socket because they make an electrical whine which irritates me trying to get to sleep.
 
I turn the MacBook off every night and pull out the charger from it. Don't trust the electricity in this house at the minute.
At home I'll just leave it however, usually just sleep.
 
PC and laptop in my bedroom are just put to sleep at night, I pull the charger from the laptop and that's about it. I used to switch the PC fully off, but seeing as it makes no noise in sleep and is back up and running in a couple of seconds, I just sleep it.

The energy costs in this house aren't that much of a bother, I'd only be saving a few pennies.
 
EVH said:
This + I tend physically pull the plugs from appliances if we're away too.
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My girlfriend can't leave the house without checking that every single socket is off (apart from fridge/freezer) and when we go away for longer than a weekend every single plug has to be pulled out of the wall.

I once read about a woman who was so paranoid that her house was going to burn down because of the electrical sockets that she slept in her car.

So when ever my girlfriend goes a bit OCD with the sockets I tell her I'm going to start leaving a blanket and pillow in the car for her.

If it was up to me I wouldn't bother but it's a small thing so I go along with it.
 
get a remote control mains switch

press a button and all the router/firewall/switch stuff gets turned off downstairs,
in the morning press a button and it all gets turned back on again.

:)
 
b.cummins said:
There's no point really is there? If you leave it on at the wall it just fills an empty circuit which never reaches the device and probably doesn't consume a noticeable power draw. I do love the uproar about leaving things on standby, as in reality you're wasting the draw to keep an LED running..
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What about several million LEDs?

I have all my devices connected to a surge adapter, but I turn that off at the wall each night. The only thing I leave on is the socket to extension which has my phone charger and lamp attached.

I started doing it years ago to avoid electrical fires, which is probably a small likelihood, but I was young and impressionable. That, and because I kinda, y'know, care about the planet and our future and realise that wasting energy is a bad thing and that I can help avoid the wastage a bit by not leaving on devices at night.

Why leave things on draining electrical energy, when you can spend a little bit of extra chemical energy (far far more renewable) turning a switch? How lazy are you people?!
 
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Used to switch the computer off at the wall but the switch has become a bit dodgy over the last few years meaning that I can still turn my computer on even when the switch on the wall is in the off position so I just leave it now. I turn the TV in my room off by the wall, especially when I go to sleep, the stupid bright red LED indicating the TV is in standby somehow manages to penetrate through my eye-lids and into my eyes when I'm trying to get to sleep. I don't think my PS3 likes being switched off completely by the wall either.

Everything else is left on at the wall usually.
 
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