Brits could save 23%, or £110 ($150), a year on their electricity bills simply by switching off electric appliances left on standby, new data from British Gas has shown.
Set-top boxes are costing households the most amount of money — £420m in total — with 83% saying they leave these on standby for almost 21 hours in a day.
Internet routers, TVs and microwaves are other “vampire electronics” that guzzle up a ton of energy when left on standby mode.
If Brits turned these appliances off when they were not using them, they could together save a total of £2.2bn on electricity bills.
Almost one in five (16%) of those surveyed by British Gas said they are unaware that many household appliances use up electricity whilst not in use, and over two in five (41%) only occasionally switch these appliances off.
Almost one third (31%) said they wish they’d known appliances were costing them money whilst on standby and 45% said they are more interested than ever to make savings on energy bills.
Some of these claims about the power used by appliances left on are exaggerated for their shock value. One claimed my Laser printer was using $80 of power a year in standby mode, I checked and it actually used less than $20 a year and that does keep the paper warm.
I have a couple of those slave/master powerboards not to save energy so much, though that is their claim, but because it is more convenient just to switch on one device and have it turn on all the others associated with it.
For example my home theatre amp is the master and the slaves are the TV, DVD player, WD TV Live, active bass speaker and record player, I just switch on the amp and all the other swing into action. My desktop computer does a similar thing.
It is true that all appliances do consume a bit of power in standby mode but it is very tiny. Just think how long your remote control batteries last and they sit there 24/7 just waiting for you to press a button. It’s largely media hype.
What a load of old hollyhocks! I never leave plugged-in electrical items switched on at the socket, but even if I did, the current drain would not be registered at the electric meter simply coz. it’s not sensitive enough. The standby mode of the large screen TV is, according to the handbook 0.4 watts and the multi-system HiFi unit is even less, so the claims are fictitious scaremongering. The only items I have that are constantly connected are the telephone system and the internet router, the rest are always switched off at the socket.
It’s a tiny LED light , it will consume hardly any power, of course appliances combined will add up but I very much doubt it’s as great as they claim, of course it’s a survey by British Gas, I wonder if they are promoting smart meters.?
It’s often a bit more than just a LED but even so doesn’t draw that much power.
Your TV for example is constantly monitoring for you to use your remote control and also the memory, clock and timer are active in case you have set it to turn on for a specific program. Microwave ovens are a clock while not in use, my printer has a small heater element to keep the paper dry (which is why I leave it on all the time) but it also monitors the network waiting for a job to arrive.
All those USB chargers left plugged in consume a little bit of power as do those laptop power supplies even when not plugged into the laptop. Personally I leave them plugged in all the time but my power bill is only about $230 a quarter so who cares?
I always switch my router off at night. One of the problems with todays marketing is they keep telling us having everything from lights to heating connected to some form of smart switching saves electricity, when the reality is, having everything on standby all the time does the exact opposite.
Unless being used our TV, PC, wifi etc etc all gets switched off. And things like mobile phones need turning off too. As laptops, pc’s, phones etc all do a variety of processes at switch off & start up, that benefit them. So turning them off is beneficial, but many leave phones, pc’s etc on all the time & even if a phone has a battery, it needs recharging.
I never use ‘standby’ and don’t understand the concept why on earth would you want to leave appliances half on?
My router is not an appliance and I have been told by the engineer not to switch it off because doing so contributes to my getting an ultra low speed of .3 mbs which doesn’t allow me to do anything at all on my laptop (a good speed here is 2 whole mps.
That’s only partly true, Windows PC for example need restarting to reset memory etc because just turning them off doesn’t do that unless you disable the quickstart (and you’d be mad to do that).
Personally I never turn my phone off but I do restart it at least once a week and the same with my tablet, My PC I usually turn off at night but my laptop is rarely turned off but these devices get restarted on a regular basis anyway either by updates or by me.
I would love to know the science behind that claim. Most so called engineers involved in fitting/ maintaining things like routers, that I have met, know nothing about Radio Frequency engineering & even less about Electro-Magnetic Compatibility, (EMC.)
@Gee3
G3 he explained when I switch the router off (the power often goes off on its own out here in the wilds ) the connection box detects a ‘fault’ and resets at the lowest speed which is .3 of a mbps, then nothing works I can’t even do a speed test it won’t load without timing out.
My Smart Meter dial, at 2:49 PM, this afternoon , is telling me that I have spent £3.73 so far today.
When I look at what has been on (assuming fridges/freezers are on, not on standby), PCs are on, phones are on, TVs are on (football) and Lots of kettles, etc., are in some use., I reckon I’ll have to look elsewhere, if I want to help the climate.
I think it would be more useful to worry about the bigger “burners”, like the heating, the Cookers, etc., if you really want to cut back.
Actually if we all cut back on the waste it would make a big difference. In the same way that not leaving the tap running whilst you clean your teeth makes a big difference, if many of us do it.
We all have a metered supply, it is how we get billed. And those so called smart meters changes nothing, when it comes to items on standby etc.All they do is allow them to read your meter without visiting & to switch your supply off the same way. So in the event of a power shortage, they can choose whose supplies to cut & whose to not cut. But they do not give you any more information about usage than any other meter.
why on earth would you want to leave appliances half on?
he explained when I switch the router off (the power often goes off on its own out here in the wilds ) the connection box detects a ‘fault’ and resets at the lowest speed which is .3 of a mbps, then nothing works I can’t even do a speed test it won’t load without timing out.