Electricity wasting gadgets

chickadee

Does anyone else think manufacturers are irresponsible by producing yet more ways to waste electricity? My pet hate are those plug-in air fresheners. Why on earth do we need to use power to heat an air freshener for goodness sake! Shouldn't we be creating ways to save power, not waste it?

If people want their homes to smell fresh, open some windows or bring some fresh flowers inside from the garden. Why not use pot pourri, but for heaven's sake don't plug in some chemical scent gadget!

What else falls into this category?

Electric pencil sharpeners
Electric can openers (except for those with arthritis, etc.)

Can anyone else think of things to waste power on?

Linda32

Does anyone still leave their TV on standby?

Other half told his Dad about that only a week ago, about it wasting electricity. His reply "arh yes I've heard that"

Guess who moans about their Electricity bill as well.

CAT-THE-FIFTH

Disposable cameras and use-once mops and dusters even though these do not waste electricity directly they still seem daft to me!

Also using incandescent bulbs in situations where fluorescent ones will do perfectly!!

gromituk

Anything which doesn't have a proper mains switch. You see, it costs a very small amount more money to have a proper mains switch, rather than a low-voltage standby switch or button, which is why I was pleased to see that a £25 Yakumo DVD player I bought a couple of years ago actually had one.

PCs always used to have proper mains switches. Now they never do, with the spurious excuse that they can be woken up on a signal from the network or some other such "feature" nobody uses.

The UK scores here, because its mains sockets usually have switches, unlike on the continent.

beaker141

It has been said before - but electric patio heaters !

I saw some in Woolworths last week - seems to be the new thing rather than gas at the moment - but at 2Kw a time quite a hefty addition to the 'lecy bill.

Also Media Centre PC's - you can feed your sky/ntl into the pc and then back out to the tv allowing you to record to hard drive/dvd etc and pause and rewind live tv - useful but with pc power supplies at 400w, and the idea of leaving a media centre pc on 24 hours to record programs when you arent there it adds up to quite a lot again.

SusanCarter

gromituk wrote:

Anything which doesn't have a proper mains switch. [snip]PCs always used to have proper mains switches. Now they never do, with the spurious excuse that they can be woken up on a signal from the network or some other such "feature" nobody uses.

I always switch the computer off at the mains. This had the added benefit that when a mysterious premium rate number on my phone bill for about £3 I was able to get my money back. BT's suggestions were that someone else had phoned it (not possible as I lived on my own in a flat too small for any visitor to make a call without me knowing) or that I'd got a virus on my computer which had made it dial the number (not possible because computer always switched off at mains).

chickadee wrote:

Electric pencil sharpeners

Try sharpening pencils for a school! (I agree they're completely unecessary for home use unless you've got some illness which makes it hard but if you'd sharpeend as many pencils as I have you'd agree that they are very useful in a school.)

gromituk

beaker141 wrote:

It has been said before - but electric patio heaters !

Any patio heaters - the gas ones are about 14kW! And run off bottled gas which must be more expensive than natural gas.

useful but with pc power supplies at 400w, and the idea of leaving a media centre pc on 24 hours to record programs when you arent there it adds up to quite a lot again.

Well to be fair, 400W is the maximum they can supply, and the PC should be consuming less than 100W most of the time. But this, of course, is still excessive.

carolbee

only a jokey one - I intend to switch off the TV during the world cup, this thought may be shared by others, and save some pennies.
but my phone bill will go up, as our son is going to be out there covering it for said TV!

chickadee

beaker141 wrote:

It has been said before - but electric patio heaters ! /QUOTE]

Couldn't agree more! If you need to heat the patio, GO INSIDE!!!

Where does the heat go? Global Warming that's where!

Whn I see things like this and plug-in air fresheners I wonder if it is me? We see news reports showing the effects of global warming then the ads cut in with B&Q offering best ever deals on electric patio heaters or ads for Glade plug-ins. Anybody watching the planet from afar would surely shake their head in wonder!

People buy state-of the art ovens, with turntables, temperatures controllable to fractions of a degree, with fan circulation and interior lights so the food can be seen through toughened glass oven doors. Then where do we cook? In the garden over coals or, worse still, gas barbecues.

I have also noticed, in the consumer ' keep up with the Joneses' world that hammocks are the new must-have garden accessory. Last year it was 10ft trampolines.

I have to say, I'm glad all this stuff passes me by.

pollys

Those plug in air fresheners Yuk. My mum and dad insist in switching theirs on when they go away for a couple of days, it chokes me when I go in to pick up the post - guess what is never switched on when they return.

My daughter got a plug-in glitter lamp for Christmas, it was a very small lamp with a plug attached no flex, she wasn't impressed enough to use it.

Patio heaters what a waste of money, extra jumper if it gets cold.

Paul_VW

freeview/sky/ntl boxes, why dont they have an off switch, they just have standby!

my wife likes the plug in air freshers, I really dont think they make the room smell any nicer, probbaly make it smell worse, they are a waste of a plug socket IMO!