I rose this morning at 3.30am, venturing into the kitchen for a glass of water I hear a noise and look towards the stove.
I notice the electric hotplate is on.
I used it over 12 hours ago and left it on 380C.
Slight rise in the power bill next time.
I was surprised by my last power bill and how small it was considering I have used the heater for many hours over winter.
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Easily done, specially if you have things occupying your mind and distractions to deal with. Done similar things myself.
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Wouldn’t happen to me.I’ve turned into my father,I regularly go around the house turning things off. 
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I have just had to throw a pile of food away as I did not shut the freezer door properly.
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I’ve got lights and buzzer on most of my appliances. Yes. The misses forgets the stove is on an she can’t hear it beeping. I ask, did you leave the stove on. I’m usually the one that doesn’t close the freezer door all the way.
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My hob is an induction type, so it switches itself off if there is no pan on the hob.That is a great way to stop me leaving a hob ring on by mistake.
If I put a pan on the hob and leave it to boil or simmer, I set an automatic timer on the hob, so it switches off after the time I have set - it saves the contents of the pan boiling dry or burning!.
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Personally when I buy a new electronic device like a TV or a stereo. I always leave it on for 24 hours because of the bathtub curve for equipment failure.
Have done this since I started work when things had valves, so it’s been a while.
It’s really annoying when realising the waste of electricity, especially with the cost of it these days. I always go outside last thing and make sure everything is secure. A couple of nights ago, I noticed a light shining from beneath the garage door. It had been on since the morning. It is only 18 watts but even so.
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Sounds like a similar Induction hob to ours Boot…If you take a pan off without turning the segment off it stops working all by itself…But a word of warning…Mrs Fox removed a pan without turning off the segment, she emptied the contents of the pan and returned it to the hob, empty…The segment turned itself on again and started heating up the empty pan…I went into the kitchen just in time to remove the smoking pan… 
I even installed a warning light on the isolator switch to make sure that we didn’t forget to turn it off after use…
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I’ve often wondered about things like laptop charging cables. Do they leak the juice when left alone with no laptop to feed?
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I’ll put the tester on d00d and let you know…
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I remember my grandfather, back in the 60s, going around unplugging everything.
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A tester? what’s that?
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For testing electrical gadgets like a Fluke Meter…
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One of these d00d…
The first picture is with the laptop charger plugged in and turned on but not charging anything…
Sorry about the quality, but you can see there is no power being used even though the charger is turned on…
In the second picture, the charger is plugged into the laptop and charging…
The reading in both cases is in ‘Watts’
Any Questions?
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Thanks, so I guess that’s exactly how it should be, and if it showed usage when cable is not connected to laptop, there is something wrong.
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I use one of those. Mostly for measuring standby wattage of new items. Unlike ‘the old days’ standby usage is often very low, even less than a watt. A couple of items measured (can’t remember which ones) don’t go to less than a watt straightaway. It can be a couple of minutes before they go into long-term standby. If items are less than a watt on standby, I am not too fussy about turning off at the mains.
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Electricity seems expensive but for many small, low wattage items it is not. My normal electricity is about 22 centimes per kWatt hour. It seems to be a good more higher in the UK, about 26pence per kWatt hour. But that means, even in the UK, a 50 watt light costs about a penny an hour to have on. What costs are the 2-3 kWatt appliances - heaters, hot water tank, oven.
In France you can sign up for the tempo scheme with EDF. This ratches up the cost on designated days by times 3 in order to reduce country wide demand on those days. You really notice a two hour roast in the oven - cost me 4.50 euros. Ouch.
Not nearly as bad as me leaving the electric boost on the hot water tank when I lived in London. The hot water was normally heated from the gas boiler but that had broken for a few days so I tripped on the electric heating. And forgot. Until the next electricity bill two months later. I had been wondering why the shower was so very warm those past few weeks.
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Could someone tell me if it is safe to press the remote control off button and leave tv on stand by . My smart tv does not have an off button . I now switch tv off at the wall socket because im afraid of fire if its left on standby . Can they catch fire on standby overnight ?
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Nothing safer than unplugging or turning off at the mains and if that make you more comfortable, keep doing so. However, they have very low power consumption when left on standby and I leave mine on standby without worry about fire/safety. I sometimes make an exception to this if there is a lightning storm that I think might cause a mains surge. I might completely unplug from the wall socket at those times. I know, there is a threat by way of the aerial, so my logic can fall down somewhat but not had anything go wrong so far.
Also, smart TVs are sometimes set by default to update firmware and available programmes during times of standby. If they aren’t left on standby, it could be best to check for programme number changes and/or additional stations, Also software/firmware updates that come via the Internet connection.
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