Standby mode and energy savings.
 

I've heard it said that appliances use up to a third of their working power whilst in standby mode.Does it do any harm to turn off at the wall socket on a regular basis?I'm sure when I installed my latest TV some 5 years ago that it recommended leaving it in standby mode when not in use.


In light of the recent energy price hyke are there significant savings to be made by turning appliances off completely if standby really does consume significant amounts of electricity.What is the truth?

I always thought it was better to switch them off than leave in standby mode, I mean I leave say my tv in standby during the course of the day if I have watched something but then switch off overnight for example.

I too understand standby is expensive. You can get an adaptor that uses less power and when you turn the TV off by remote, instead of going to standby, the adaptor cuts power to the TV. British Gas I think were giving them away some years ago as trailing sockets so you could turn of a few things at once, when you turn the TV on by remote the adaptor supplies power to the TV.

Just be careful of doing this to your DVD recorder :)

macafee2

Leaving a flat panel set on standby will cost very little however if you still own a CRT set then that can be substancially more. Most LCD sets will cost a few pounds per year at most.

It all depends on the manufacturer. If you buy say a Philips product manufactured in the last 8-10 years, it's almost guaranteed by design to consume extremely low energy levels.

Some cheaper products can consume a lot of energy in standby.

Most modern PCs with high-quality PSUs will consume about 0.2W in the off state whilst plugged in which is very little. Cheap far-eastern generic PC PSUs on the other hand can consume 5W.

It's always worth checking the specs.

Having spent many years in the insurance industry (including claims settlement) there is no way I would ever leave any appliance switched on at the mains. I don't care what the manufacturers say, until they specifically guarantee that they will meet any claim resulting from a live appliance ignition the onus is on the householder to meet their policy requirements. Be honest, how difficult is it to flip a switch?

Most modern appliances are required by law to consume very low levels of power when on standby. For example the One Watt initiative and then the half watt meant that devices used much less power than previously.

“Since 2013, the European Commission has ruled that TVs must not use more than half a watt of power while in standby mode2.

Testing by Which? in 2014 found that an LED HD TV left on standby for 19 hours would use 0.22 watts during that time. Assuming that was repeated for 365 days, your TV would use 80.3 watts over the course of the year while on standby. “

From https://www.ovoenergy.com/guides/ene...standby-energy

Some older devices may of course still use power, as will games consoles or devices updating or downloading overnight (e.g. Sky Q boxes).

Excellent link you provided,explains things very well.

But, there is a lot of electronic stuff sold which does not meet legal or basic safety requirements!


That is a totally meaningless statement. 0.22W is the same as the 0.2W I mentioned above. But, left on for 19 hours means that the consumption is actually 4.2 Watt-hours and over 365 days 1.5KWh. Not a huge amount but very different to your link's numbers. It just shows that not all 'experts' publishing on websites are actually experts!;)

Electricity savings
 

To put into perspective, a 1.5kWh saving over a year is equivalent to ONE 10 minute electric shower.

To give you a true idea of where these horror figures come from, 1st generation Sky boxes used ~45W running, and 43W on standby !
Likewise for Virgin first generation boxes. Luckily most of these boxes have long since died of old age.

I can't comment on newer generation boxes. While they will be better, I suspect they are not good in standby, judging by the fact that Sky & Virgin don't advertise ad nauseam their standby credentials.

Broadband routers are power vampires, but ISPs don't recommend they be turned off, since it will tend to slow down your broadband speed.

As a generalisation, the newer something is, the less power it consumes in standby. And as most devices are <10 years old, there really aren't much savings to be made.

Laptops generally use less power than desktops when running, but suffer a big performance penalty as a consequence.
Tablets use much less power than PCs.

Ovens and cooking is an area where significant savings can be made.

Halogen floodlights and halogen kitchen/hallway lights are a real waste of money. I have seen additional consumer units installed to power such a setup.

If you really want to save money, shower with a friend ! I often urge SHMBO to shower with the dog. :devil: