Switching off at the plug

[st00dent]

Just had our latest electricity bill come through and noticed that our day rate is four times higher than the off peak rate.

We have a few things that generally get left on standby all the time (V+ box, PS3, Wii and a couple of TVs) and am wondering how much money we are likely to be wasting.

Has anyone on here made an effort to try and cut down on their electricity wastage? Was the amount of money saved worth the effort?

As I'm not the last to leave in the morning, I've also been looking at getting a couple of timer plugs. Can anyone recommend a decent one?

Any advice appreciated.

Ta

 

[Morgoth]

power consumption in standby is minimal.

 

[elmarko]

It's circa 2.5% of total consumption (pending on the amount of appliances), but the biggest wastage is people leaving a TV on for an hour (while washing up/making food) or lights in empty rooms.

Poor insulation, single glazed windows or low efficiency electric heaters, tumble-dryers are amongst the usual suspects for large bills.

 

[PR.]

Our fridge freezer is about 15 years old and I would guess it doubles the power consumption of the idle/empty house when it kicks in, we've got one of those British Gas Electricity Monitor things, really recommend them as you can play around and see what's using the power.

 

[Jonny69]

Check the consoles. My colleague at Sony told me some of them sit idle on the internet which can draw a bit more than you think. It's worth getting a cheap power monitor from eBay.

 

[oweneades]

If you are that worried about it, simply switch them all off at the plug, it takes what a few seconds of effort?

Simples.

 

[Deleted member 77746]

power consumption in standby is minimal.

But it all adds up over the years. If everyone turned off everything when they weren't using it then that would be a huge saving. People are lazy so won't do this.

I however, do.

 

[Vonhelmet]

I imagine you'll spend more on the power monitor plug things than you'll save in any sensible length of time.

 

[Noel Gallagher]

power consumption in standby is minimal.

Still a waste and still adding up.

If you're not using it, turn it off. Thats how I live.

 

[Devrij]

My gf and I had a big argument over this. We now switch everything except the stuff in my office off at the plug, unless the sky box is set to record anything. Really, the biggest saving is changing your active usage.

 

[Morgoth]

If you're not using it, turn it off. Thats how I live.

Rock and roll dude.

 

[st00dent]

If you are that worried about it, simply switch them all off at the plug, it takes what a few seconds of effort?

Simples.

If someone else wants to use it after I have left in the morning, they will forget to turn it back off again when they have finished.

 

[Devrij]

Then get timer plugs, but they'll cost more than you'll save.

 

[Sunbed]

Rock and roll dude.

LOL

(his album is quite good though!)

 

[Cosimo]

If someone else wants to use it after I have left in the morning, they will forget to turn it back off again when they have finished.

But you'll still be saving a bit.

 

[Linkex]

If you are that worried about it, simply switch them all off at the plug, it takes what a few seconds of effort?

Simples.

Yet another win for GD. There you go OP, you can turn **** off at the wall whenever you leave the room for 5 seconds. I bet you didn't think of that for yourself, did you?

Personally, I would find crawling behind the TV every day a MASSIVE BALLACHE, and would be inclined to do some investigating beforehand to find out if it was worth the extra effort. I might even put up a post on the forums, maybe ask for some actual facts and figures. But now I don't need to - GD have swooped in to let me know that if I have the slightest suspicion that there might be a benefit, I should crawl under my TV every night...

</sarcasm>

Seriously though, why do people post replys like this? You cannot possibly live your life thinking "Ohh, this or that might possibly give me some benefit, so I will just do it from now on without checking if it actually really helps" (At least I certainly hope not) - so why would you post suggesting it? Clearly the correct action is to find out if this is actually worth while...

 

[arknor]

My gf and I had a big argument over this. We now switch everything except the stuff in my office off at the plug, unless the sky box is set to record anything. Really, the biggest saving is changing your active usage.

i switched my cable box off for days and it took over an hour to reboot into a useable state lol..

i guess the memory on them only holds some required settings for so long and then it has to go back into seek mode and find out what frequences and power settings it needs to get a good signal

 

[Linkex]

I've just done a bit of research on this - a modern TV that subscribes to the 1 watt policy, assuming a 10 pence per kilowatt unit price, would cost £0.074p per month to run. That is seven point four pence. A month.

Assuming an older TV that sucks up 10 watts on standby, thats still only £0.74 per month. I'm sure as hell not going crawling under my TV to save less than £1.00 a month

 

[Memphis]

It genuinely concerns me that the general populous still believes that their TV sitting on standby is costing them a fortune. Says quite a lot really.

 

[Jonny69]

I've just done a bit of research on this - a modern TV that subscribes to the 1 watt policy, assuming a 10 pence per kilowatt unit price, would cost £0.074p per month to run. That is seven point four pence. A month.

What are your calculations for this, out of interest?