standby saver plugs

Katie-Kat-Kins

Is there a certain amount of confusion between standby and off here???

Taking a TV as an example, ours can be on, or on standby (screen blank but little red light showing), or off (switched on at the plug but off at the button on the front no lights showing), or off at the plug.

Leaving it on standby does use electricity and I believe in the case of the TV it can be quite a lot. I turn off at the button on the front at all times, it takes seconds. I don't unplug it though.

I understand some appliances don't have so many options, my stereo for example when the power switch is turned off keeps a light glowing and the clock running and retains pre-sets etc so that is using power when turned off and unplugging might save me some money. Conversley the microwave doesn't use any power when plugged in but not actually in use, neither does the kettle or toaster so they stay plugged in at all times.

I wonder if the differences above explain why some people perceive big savings and others very little??

williham

Cardew wrote: »

Yes I am sure!

A TV using 1 Watt on stand by will use 8.76kWh a year if left on 24/7 365 days a year.(24 x 365/1,000). So @10p kWh = 87.6p a year.

My old(8/9 years) Sony 32" CRT uses 0.6 watts, A similar age 27" Panasonic CRT uses 0.9 watts and new 37" Panasonic LCD uses 0.4 watts.

These confirmed by handbook and with power meter.

All of the manufacturers signed up years ago to reduce standby consumption to less than 1 Watt.

If your 'Samsung tft' uses 20 watts then surely it must be set for DVB recording.

Ok lol, my prices were based on a unit rate of 15p didn't know you could get electricity for 10p nowadays not that it makes much of a difference.

My samsung is just a normal tft, doesn't record.
It's rubbish that they all signed up to make consumption less than 1watt or there wouldn't be an energy saving trust standard (that my sony 32" has).

You're obviously blessed with energy saving TVs

Cardew

KatP wrote: »

Is there a certain amount of confusion between standby and off here???

Taking a TV as an example, ours can be on, or on standby (screen blank but little red light showing), or off (switched on at the plug but off at the button on the front no lights showing), or off at the plug.

Leaving it on standby does use electricity and I believe in the case of the TV it can be quite a lot. I wonder if the differences above explain why some people perceive big savings and others very little??

There shouldn't be any confusion here. It is a standard term.

Standby is when it is switched off with the remote and can be switched back on with the remote.

All manufacturers use the term 'standby' as far as I am aware.

The most important point to make is that it does not use a lot of electricity on standby, and for most people it will be under £1 a year

Cardew

williham wrote: »

My samsung is just a normal tft, doesn't record.
It's rubbish that they all signed up to make consumption less than 1watt or there wouldn't be an energy saving trust standard (that my sony 32" has).

You're obviously blessed with energy saving TVs

By saying your Samsung is set for recording, I didn't mean it records itself. Some TVs have the facility to be set to use the TV itself to produce the signal for recording on an external source, whilst the TV is not switched on.

My late model Panasonic 37" LCD has this facility. 0.4 watts in standby, but 19 watts set for DVB recording.

Are you sure your Samsung hasn't got this facility?


If I am 'blessed' then I share that with the majority of the UK population.

I have looked thro the brochures on-line of some of the major manufactures and can't find one above 1 watt in standby. This seems quite typical at 0.4 watts.

http://www.panasonic.co.uk/html/en_GB/Products/VIERA+Flat+Screen+Televisions/NeoPDP+TVs/TX-P46G15/Specification/2352463/index.html?trackInfo=true


I believe all the major manufacturers signed up to the 'less than 1 watt' standard some while ago. Perhaps you can point out some brochures with specification sheets for TVs with high standby consumption.

I have just found the receipt for my Sony 32" CRT (whilst looking for something else!) and it is 8 years old and has a standby consumption of 0.6 watts.

duncansby

I was worried about standby as we have 5 tvs in the house (ridiculous I know). Got a British Gas smart meter and discovered that switching them off, or leaving them in standby did not seem to make any difference to the meter reading. So I looked out the manuals and calculated the usage and it would cost me £1.40 if all the TVs were left on standby 365 days of the year.

There certainly seems to be a lot of media hype and disinformation surrounding standby - certainly makes my planned purchase of a standby saver socket a bit redundant!

Cardew

duncansby wrote: »

I was worried about standby as we have 5 tvs in the house (ridiculous I know). Got a British Gas smart meter and discovered that switching them off, or leaving them in standby did not seem to make any difference to the meter reading. So I looked out the manuals and calculated the usage and it would cost me £1.40 if all the TVs were left on standby 365 days of the year.

There certainly seems to be a lot of media hype and disinformation surrounding standby - certainly makes my planned purchase of a standby saver socket a bit redundant!

Agreed!

The danger of this emphasis on standby consumption is that many people think that all they need to do to make dramatic savings on their electricity bill is switch off TVs etc.

I have lost count of the number of times that we have had posts complaining about huge electricity bills that start "I switch off the TV at the wall".