Turning off at the wall

black-saturn

Thanks for this but that wasn't my question. My question was do electrical goods use electric when they are not switched off at the wall?

So for example a kettle. My kettle is not being used, not on standby but the plug switch is on. Is it using electric?

paul_h

black-saturn wrote:

Thanks for this but that wasn't my question. My question was do electrical goods use electric when they are not switched off at the wall?

So for example a kettle. My kettle is not being used, not on standby but the plug switch is on. Is it using electric?

Seems this has gone a bit off thread!

In answer to your original question - No. If a domestic appliance is switched off it will not use any electric, whether it is switched off at the wall or not.

The only items which use power when 'off' are those which are obviously still operational when in standby, such as VCRs, satellite boxes, and other devices which have timers built into them.

black-saturn

Thanks, thats all I wanted to know. Only when I watched No Waste Like Home the other day the lady in that said that all appliances should be switched off at the wall to save electric.

StephenB_2

black-saturn wrote:

... Only when I watched No Waste Like Home the other day the lady in that said that all appliances should be switched off at the wall to save electric.

I have never seen No Waste Like Home, but your post tells me all I need to know about it. Avoid.

SJB

bunking_off

DSmiffy wrote:

On the TV program No Waste Like Home last week, it was stated that electrical appliances such as DVD players, TV's radios etc left on standby used up 80%, yes 80% !!! of the electricity it would use if it were switched on.
I say switch 'em off.

Yes, it was this that made me dig my manual out, because (and I'll admit I have a Masters degree in electronics) it didn't seem right to me.

This confirmed to me that the No Waste Like Home figure was absolute nonsense as it's the difference between 1.6W and 160W (like a lot of other things on that programme, I might add - e.g. the environmental or economic logic of throwing away a perfectly serviceable washing machine to get a £1000+ on that took a bigger load and used less water).

Being charitable, I guess you could interpret it that 80% of the consumption was while the TV was on standby, but given there's an approx 100:1 ratio between powered up and standby consumption, to hit that value the TV would have to only be used for 6 minutes a day, on standby for 23hrs 54 mins.

bunking_off

paul_h wrote:

.

The worst offender however is the satellite digibox - these have a high standby consumption as they are not really in 'standby' - only the outputs are powered down. The lnb, and the receiver and processor circuits are still powered enabling the box to receive overnight software and programming updates. You could switch it off at the socket, but power cycling these devices (turning power off and on daily) is not recommended and could lead to premature failure.

You're correct. The other issue is that if you have Sky multiroom, you have a contractual requirement to leave the unit powered up and connected to the phone line (this is necessary so that they can ping the secondary unit to make sure it's actually at the same property as the primary unit hence isn't being abused to get two subscriptions for one).

DSmiffy

bunking_off wrote:

Yes, it was this that made me dig my manual out, because (and I'll admit I have a Masters degree in electronics) it didn't seem right to me.

This confirmed to me that the No Waste Like Home figure was absolute nonsense as it's the difference between 1.6W and 160W (like a lot of other things on that programme, I might add - e.g. the environmental or economic logic of throwing away a perfectly serviceable washing machine to get a £1000+ on that took a bigger load and used less water).

Being charitable, I guess you could interpret it that 80% of the consumption was while the TV was on standby, but given there's an approx 100:1 ratio between powered up and standby consumption, to hit that value the TV would have to only be used for 6 minutes a day, on standby for 23hrs 56 mins.

6 minutes a day, !!! that's about the length of time I'm allowed to have the remote control for in our house !!

John_Gray

It's extremely easy to move from speculation to fact by buying one of the 13A plug/socket consumption meters (recently on sale from Lidl at £4.99). This shows (for example) that my ancient TV uses 80-85 watts when running, but on standby uses 3 watts. In winter, leaving the TV on standby makes a marginal contribution to reducing my heating requirements from other sources! :cool:

John

Louiseuk25

Hmmm, has anyone got any electrical usage figures that I can throw at my boyf to persuade him that leaving his PC on 24 hours a day is not more economical than turning it on and off before bed and work. I've tried my damned hardest but to no avail!!!!

Thanks!

Louise

NeilW

paul_h wrote:

Seems this has gone a bit off thread!

In answer to your original question - No. If a domestic appliance is switched off it will not use any electric, whether it is switched off at the wall or not.

The only items which use power when 'off' are those which are obviously still operational when in standby, such as VCRs, satellite boxes, and other devices which have timers built into them.

One offender is a Personal Computer. Most modern ones don't ever switch themselves off properly if you use the on/off switch on the front of the PC. The transformer is still operational and the motherboard is cycling awaiting an input from some device or other. These you either switch off at the wall, or switch of at the transformer, if you have one with a proper rocker switch.

NeilW