Leaving a TV on standby.

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Bristol, UK
My dad and I are at loggerheads over whether leaving a TV on standby wastes electricity.

I've tried looking this up online, but I can only find opinions and for every opinion is an opposite one:

Some people say it still uses 45% power, others say practically 1%.
Some say it's better to turn a TV off as it'll increase the life expectancy of it, others say the opposite.

Does anyone have any true comparitive data from trusted sources regarding this, please? (or.. something)

Mucho gracias!
 
Our main TV is:

Power consumption (typical): 92.0 W
Standby power consumption: < 0.15 W
Off mode power consumption: < 0.01 W
 
My colleague has one of those energy consumption meters in her home. She was telling me today her husband went around putting all their TV's and other appliances on standby and it made no noticable difference to consumption. This could just be too small an increase for the meter to pick up but either way it shows how insignificant it was.

IIRC when buying one of my Tv's I looked at the power consumption on standby and it was less than 1w an hour. Which over the course of the month would be the same as leaving a 60w bulb on for 12 hours.

You may as well turn it off, you could get a wireless/remote switch so you don't have to reach behind. I'm not sure how much of a fire risk TV's pose on standby but you could always take it out of the equation.
 
probably nearer 1% to 45%

care?

Well my dad has OCD, so now that he's fixated on this he can't help himself but check every single plug socket to make sure everything is turned off and the plug pulled out about 3 times over.
If I can show him data that proves it's not the big money burn he thinks it is, he can relax.

So, yes, I care.
 
Well my dad has OCD, so now that he's fixated on this he can't help himself but check every single plug socket to make sure everything is turned off and the plug pulled out about 3 times over.
If I can show him data that proves it's not the big money burn he thinks it is, he can relax.

So, yes, I care.

move out.
 
It does vary significantly between televisions, but ours uses less than half a watt on standby.
 
I just turn it off every night. It's really not hard.

The best way to measure is not with an energy meter on the tails but at watt meter on the specific plug that is for the item you want to measure. The full energy meters are not as sensitive as the watt meters. Cheap Watt meters are about £10.
 
I tested this with the British Gas energy meter thingy, I couldn't see any difference between having it on standby and switching it off by the button.

Off topic, my meter didn't change from 0.12 kW but does that seem a little high for typical idle home power consumption?
 
I tested this with the British Gas energy meter thingy, I couldn't see any difference between having it on standby and switching it off by the button.

Off topic, my meter didn't change from 0.12 kW but does that seem a little high for typical idle home power consumption?

That's only 120w. So if you have a boiler, fridge oven etc at idle that's normal. I think ours was something like 150w at what I considered Idle (everything in its place when we were asleep)
 
That's only 120w. So if you have a boiler, fridge oven etc at idle that's normal. I think ours was something like 150w at what I considered Idle (everything in its place when we were asleep)

OK cheers, just what I wanted to know.
 
I use a plug that has a sensor you pair with your remote control. When you press stand by it turns the plug off at the main. You press the stand by button twice to turn plug and tv back on. They were giving them away free online a few months back.
 
My Plasma uses a max of 385w when running and a standby usage of 0.5w. You would not notice 0.5w on home electric meters you are talking hardly anything I doubt its even a quid a year tbh...
 
CRT TVs use a good amount of power on standby, that is the only thing I can think has got your dad confused.
 
My Plasma uses a max of 385w when running and a standby usage of 0.5w. You would not notice 0.5w on home electric meters you are talking hardly anything I doubt its even a quid a year tbh...

0.5w is 12w per day (assuming on standby all day), 365x12 is 4380w or 4.38 kw. An average KW of electric is somewhere about 12p so that's 52p a year.

While on however assuming max consumption...
385w on for say 6 hours a day is 2310w per day or 843150w per year.

So 843kw at 12p per kw is £101.17 a year just for your TV for 6 hours a day.

Again, assuming it is drawing the full amount which it won't be.
 
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