Huge Gas & Elec Usage

miaxmia

Cardew wrote:

Hi welcome.

There is a lot of mis-information given out about standby consumption.

Many years ago TVs could have a standby consumption of 3 watts or so. However modern TVs have a tiny power consumption on standby.

I have a 28 inch Panasonic and 32 inch Sony - both about 5 years old - and the Panasonic has a standby consumption of 0.9watts and the Sony 0.6watts.

That means if they were both left on 24 hours a day 365 days a year they would use approx £1 in a year(60p and 40p respectively)
Newer TVs have even lower consumption, so you are talking about a very few pence per year for standby.

Switch them off by all means, but a "big culprit" it ain't.

Then the TV programme researchers must have got it very wrong!!

Cardew

miaxmia wrote:

Then the TV programme researchers must have got it very wrong!!

It wouldn't be the first time!

The trouble is that they look at something on the internet and quote that as if it is 'gospel'.

One University(I think Oxford) published a document for their students on ways to save Electricity and quoted a standby wattage of 'up to 20 watts'. This was challenged and it turned out that wattage was for a 1960's TV that had valves. (even at that rating it is approx £13 a year)

If you look at the specs for TV's on the internet you will see standby consumptions of typically 0.5 watts which means pence per year if left on 24/7.

oldwiring

Nother thing is that old info never gets taken off. Evem sites owned by local councils and the like have stuff which is years old and superceded.

Wig

Cardew wrote:

They are designed to be left with the clock on. The consumption of a led/lcd display is negligble - a penny or two a year if left on 24/7.

You are surely not suggesting they should be switched off at the mains after each use?

Why not? It's only a microwave fgs! it only takes half a second to reach over and turn it off at the wall when not in use. Plus you have no way of knowing how much it is actually using, the manual specs might not have said and if they do you've probably thrown them away now. If you put a consumption meter on it you might be surprised how much power that oversized clock is using.

Ken68

Cardew wrote:

They are designed to be left with the clock on. The consumption of a led/lcd display is negligble - a penny or two a year if left on 24/7.

You are surely not suggesting they should be switched off at the mains after each use?

My energy monitor bought from Lidl for a £5, showed Pounds not Pennies per year.However, will do a 24hr check.

Wig

Cardew wrote:

Hi welcome.

There is a lot of mis-information given out about standby consumption.

Many years ago TVs could have a standby consumption of 3 watts or so. However modern TVs have a tiny power consumption on standby.

I have a 28 inch Panasonic and 32 inch Sony - both about 5 years old - and the Panasonic has a standby consumption of 0.9watts and the Sony 0.6watts.

That means if they were both left on 24 hours a day 365 days a year they would use approx £1 in a year(60p and 40p respectively)
Newer TVs have even lower consumption, so you are talking about a very few pence per year for standby.

There are also a lot of things with outrageous wattage on standby, TVs and VCRs included, you can't tell by looking, not everyone has modern new equipment, and even out of the modern stuff not every item follows the "less than 1w" philosophy which is now industry 'good practice'. The simplest thing to do is switch off at the wall, even if it only saves 60p per item per year. With older products it's going to save more than that.

Each watt on standby is 8.76 kwh per year, on my electric bill that is about 87p

littlejaffa

Have to say re scottish power (mentioned above) they are super keen to get our meter read, often coming back 3 or 4 times a day if they miss us. They're also one of the cheapest out there (depending on consuption etc) BUT if anything goes wrong their cs is bad, they actually have posters in their office of a skull with a hammer coming down on it and slogan of 'knock complaints on the head'!
when you do transfer make sure you take readings (and pictures of reading with a camera stamped with the date) get the company your leaving to come out and take readings - don't do it over the phone!
if you beleive your meters faulty you can request your current supplier comes out and checks it or gives you a new one but it will take time

Cardew

Wig wrote:

The simplest thing to do is switch off at the wall, even if it only saves 60p per item per year. With older products it's going to save more than that.

Switch of at the wall, and on again, several hundred(thousand?) times a year to save up to 60p in the year?

Might be the simplest thing for you, but I suggest others might just think that is eccentric! Me for one!

chris73

Aside from any energy usage leaving electrical items on stand by is a fire hazard. Products with clocks such as VCR's, Microwaves, Heating timers etc are designed to be connected to the mains 24/7 - TV's aren't - don't take my word for it, go read your manual.

Several years ago, I left an upstairs TV connected to the mains during a thunderstorm. A surge due to a lightening strike on a overhead line came through the mains and blew the circuitry on the VCR and TV, fortunately I was in and found the TV set smouldering before any real harm was done, but it could easily have turned into a fire

Leaving a TV on standby means that part of the circuitry is always powered up, 30 or 40 individual components are continuously being used on the PSU to reduce the mains voltage to a few volts used by the stand by circuitry and the standby led. This may in turn mean premature wear and failure of the set.

Even though a TV on SB, only uses a watt of energy multiply this by a few million tv sets around the country and you have some serious energy usage being wasted. How many Environmentalists harp on about cars and pollution, who may themselves currently have upto 3 tv's at home left on standby!.

Dress it up how you want, but the only prime reason for sets being left on stand by is laziness, there is no other beneficial reason I can think of, can you?

mikemoate

There are somethings which can be left on and others which shouldn't. Some people may be too lazy to switch off at the wall others may have difficulty with this because of location or disability. Whilst I don't suggest buying from this site, as always shop around, there are some innovations on here which some people may find useful.

http://www.ricability.org.uk/reports/report-household/whatsnew/dailyliving.htm