Not sure where else to ask this. Since many of you are very technically minded would anyone be able to help me settle a term-long dispute with my housemate. He keeps insisting that everything in the kitchen/living room is switched off at the wall at night. I completely agree with turning stuff like the TV, the XBox, the freeview box etc. off, but he keeps insisting that the toaster, the kettle and the microwave (no digital timer) are switched off. His retort when I point out if he's left the TV and XBox on standby (and he left the 6 spotlights on one night) is that I don't turn the kettle and toaster off when I'm not using them. I'm of the opinion that the kettle and toaster don't use any energy at all when they are not in use. They don't have an inverter, they don't have a standby light, so how can they use energy if they're not in use. The TV and the XBox I can understand. And even IF they use energy when not in use, the energy saved by turning them off when not in use for an entire year I imagine will be in the same ballpark as the energy saved by turning a TV off standby for one evening.
Tbh I find the idea of simply turning everything off because it has a standby mode stupid. Check out the typical power uses for most modern devices on standby and it's a couple of Watts, something you could easily negate by gaming for 10 minutes less every week or boiling half a dozen less cups of tea. The way to save real money/CO2 is to use the expensive appliances more efficiently. Turn down your central heating, shower instead of taking baths, wash your hands in cold water, boil exactly what water you need, etc etc. But yes, your thinking is correct; something like a kettle or toaster doesn't use anything unless it's on. An LCD monitor will use <2W while off, just from the tiny energy waste in the power brick. A TV that has an old-style power button (i.e. cuts the circuit) will probably use even less than that. Upshot: extra wear and tear from constantly switching off your sockets probably costs you more than the minuscule energy to run them.
Mmmh my flat mate unplugs the kettle and toaster always as well. Reckon to him it's more of a fire hazard thing, though. Also those being his appliances I just go along. Also on large scale I DO think that standby modes are bad. When I switch something off, I want it to be OFF and not on standby. To me it's just totally wasted energy, but mainly just one of those little things that annoy me.
Does that include your tv? So you enjoy switching your tv on from the button every time you want to watch something? LOL Seriously, if they had a button, built into every remote, that acted as a 'mains - on/off' switch, then that would be great. As it is, they've come out with 8 socket leads, that have a button on the end of a cord, for pc users I assume to just press it, and all 8 sockets get switched off. There's also one that has an IR remote or something along those lines.
I don't have a TV and don't plan on buying one either, but back home I didn't understand what's the big deal. I'm really not THAT fat'n'lazy. I understand how switching the channel from the remote can be handy, but usually I walk to/from the sofa before and after watching something, so it really isn't a huge effort to push a button on the way there, is it?
Ill freely admit im really bad for switching stuff of, TV in the lounge and consoles are switched off at the mains every night, but everything else is left on and in standby mode. Like krikkit said their are better ways of saving energy, i walk or bike short distances instead of taking the car for instance.
I'm so using that line next time someone moans at me for not turning something trivial off at the mains
I surf Bit-tech on my netbook rather than my athlon x2 6000+ machine =D TBH I think my main PC is worse than any deforestation lol. Wasn't there a thing on Dragons den that charged up when the appliance was in use and used that power when it was in standby. Don't think it added to power draw while in operation.
Just a bigass cap in a power adapter - charges up while the device is on and then slowly discharges later. It's still energy used, you may as well just leave it on the normal plug socket.
I have 2 intelligent multiway sockets in my house. 1 is on the tv that has an IR sensor on it. It records the button you press to turn on the TV with so when you press it, it turns on all the sockets then you press the button again to actually turn on the TV. Then when you turn the TV off, it powers off all the sockets, then powers up the Virgin/sky box so it is ready an waiting for when you turn it all on again! The PC one has a master socket you plug the PC into and it just turns on the rest of the sockets when you turn on/off the PC itself. Hence my printer, monitor, speakers, mouse base, Headphone amp are totally off until I want them. As for the toaster and kettle pffft like they make any difference at all. Oh and I swapped to all LED Christmas lights last year! -J
As far as I was aware it used the same amount of power as the device plugged in normally. http://www.thestandbysaver.co.uk/index.html thats the item there. It would have to use less when charging otherwise it wouldn't save a penny.
I went through the flat with one of those plug-in energy reader things and I knew about my PCs, always turned those off, knew about my electric convector heaters and changed them for halogen models that use fixed amounts of power. I was surprised to find that my speaker adapters were taking power when the speakers themselves were off - and actually had a button for turning them off - also reported in this week's Micro Mart. Same for my DVD Recorder which really prefers to be in standby using almost as much power as when it's fully on. So everything is on a strip with a master switch and it's all off when I sleep unless I've set the recorder. Even though the kettle and toaster thing is dumb, he is right in one way - you get into a routine of turning everything off at the wall except the fridge, and on the rare occasions that you do leave stuff on overnight, you won't get hammered with a massive bill. Also I stick with this Dell E773c monitor, it might be a goldfish bowl CRT but uses less than 50w and I don't have the ghosting and lag of a flatscreen. Until those issues are permanently cured in TFT screen technology I don't see myself trading up to one either.