Saving Electricity

[Khandro]

Green guidelines recommend disabling standby mode on various household appliances.

When I think about it, my TV for example must be on standby for about 20 hours in each 24, which means 140hrs per week or (reaches for calculator) 7,280 hrs per year!

To switch off standby mode I would have to struggle behind the set to get to the wall-socket or likewise to the TV connection.

Would putting a torpedo switch in the cable be a sensible & easy way to do this please?

[Cloverjo]

You could save a lot by putting a jumper and big socks on instead of turning the heating up. As I keep telling Husband.

[davebro]

He who chops firewood gets warm twice - old Chinese proverb!

[Khandro]

Back in the late 70s when I was earning a dishonest living in higher education, we had the 3 day week & "The Winter of Discontent", my university then had a sticker placed next to every switch in the entire institution asking you to 'Switch off when not in use'.

The idea wasn't to save money so much as to save electricity for the nation.

A noble cause, which went out of the window with privatisation in 1990 when shareholders in the new companies wanted, then as now, you to use as much electricity as you possibly can, & sod the nation.

[Stargazer]

Davebro, I am with you there. I only fill my kettle with just a few fl oz more than my half pint mug holds. My daughters fill the kettle half full which annoys me.

[New Judge]

//The idea wasn't to save money so much as to save electricity for the nation.//

I don't get it, Khandro. If everybody is paying for what they use (whether they waste it or not) how will them using less save it "for the nation".

[davebro]

Well if everyone uses less then we need less generating capacity and maybe no imports from France? Which would be a saving for the nation if it was nationalised!

[Hymie]

Sometime ago (the hated EUSSR) imposed a standby power draw limit on TVs of 0.5W. Therefore over a year on continuous standby, the total energy usage of a TV would be less than 4.4kWh (or cost less than £1 based on electricity costing 20p/kWh).

[Buenchico]

7300 hours per year, at just 1.4W (which, according to various sources I've just googled seems to be the typical power consumption of a TV in standby mode) comes to 10.22 kWh.

Prior to recent/forthcoming prices rises, each kWh typically cost about 20p, so fitting a switch (at the 'old' prices) might save you around £2. Allowing for a possible doubling of energy prices, that takes your saving up to around £4 per year, which happens to be the same as the price of a switch:
Amazon.co.uk User Recommendation

You'll certainly be doing your bit for the planet by fitting such a switch (as long as you keep remembering to actually use it, of course!) but don't expect to be able to take any cruises using the money that you've saved ;-)

[Buenchico]

^^^ As Hymie indicates, newer sets should draw less power than many older ones when in standby mode. On that basis, it might take around three years before the switch pays for itself, rather than just one.

[Khandro]

jim; There are about 30 million TV sets in the UK. How much electricity could be saved nationally ?

Whether you like it or not, energy is going to have to be saved (& probably rationed) in the coming years. As I have said, it isn't necessarily about your or my money it will become an existential problem; that is unless you can come up with some miraculous new source of supply.

[Hopkirk]

Davebro is right.
The savings in not leaving equipment on standby are miniscule. Just put a few drops less water in the kettle and you will save much more.
Suggesting that equipment on standby is a big issue is mad.