How much money do I actually save by switching all the stand by applcances off at ni

Jonesya

Simple things like kettles and toasters normally use NO power when plugged in but not in use. It's typically electronic devices that need to remain powered so they can respond to remote controls, or run 24/7 that use power on standby.

One item I've found worth checking and unplugging are powered speaker systems, for PCs and home cinema - my sub-woofer uses 15W even when the amp is off.

Ectophile

The worst offender I have found was a Freeview recorder that took 25W when in use and 24W on standby. That adds up to quite a lot of money over a year!

I've just checked my very old (nearly 25 years) microwave, and am rather surprised that it's only taking 4W.

dingdongsaving

Def. borrow or buy a reader and check what you're using.

Hubby and I are at opposite ends of the saving stick on this one.

He believes in turning lights and gadgets off as soon as we leave a room but he doesn't want to go to the trouble of turning things of at the switches each night for the sake of 40p. Basically, he always says he'll be "careful not crazy" for as long as we can afford that 40p.

I feel that if we can save a resource & and significant amount of £ over a year it's worth it.

Hehe. It all comes down to what you believe, how much you want/need to save and if you can be bothered/can remember to switch things off if you want to.

I figure if I manage to switch our key items off 5 nights a week it adds up to over £100 a year. Well worth it to me. (This is based on our calculations. Standby items in our house use 40-ish pence for every 10 hours they're on but not being "used").

theEnd

dingdongsaving wrote: »

Def. borrow or buy a reader and check what you're using.

Hubby and I are at opposite ends of the saving stick on this one.

He believes in turning lights and gadgets off as soon as we leave a room but he doesn't want to go to the trouble of turning things of at the switches each night for the sake of 40p. Basically, he always says he'll be "careful not crazy" for as long as we can afford that 40p.

I feel that if we can save a resource & and significant amount of £ over a year it's worth it.

Hehe. It all comes down to what you believe, how much you want/need to save and if you can be bothered/can remember to switch things off if you want to.

I figure if I manage to switch our key items off 5 nights a week it adds up to over £100 a year. Well worth it to me. (This is based on our calculations. Standby items in our house use 40-ish pence for every 10 hours they're on but not being "used").

Are you sure it's 40p/night? That's a little less than my entire electric costs (which includes electric kitchen and some communal lighting). I have loads of 'gadgets' and nothing gets switched off at night.

dingdongsaving

It's 37.6p for 10 hours. Hubby's a scientist and he has a lot of gadgets that are all on standby mode and remote controlled.

theEnd

dingdongsaving wrote: »

It's 37.6p for 10 hours. Hubby's a scientist and he has a lot of gadgets that are all on standby mode and remote controlled.

How much is your total elec costs?

ABrass

dingdongsaving wrote: »

Def. borrow or buy a reader and check what you're using.

Hubby and I are at opposite ends of the saving stick on this one.

He believes in turning lights and gadgets off as soon as we leave a room but he doesn't want to go to the trouble of turning things of at the switches each night for the sake of 40p. Basically, he always says he'll be "careful not crazy" for as long as we can afford that 40p.

I feel that if we can save a resource & and significant amount of £ over a year it's worth it.

Hehe. It all comes down to what you believe, how much you want/need to save and if you can be bothered/can remember to switch things off if you want to.

I figure if I manage to switch our key items off 5 nights a week it adds up to over £100 a year. Well worth it to me. (This is based on our calculations. Standby items in our house use 40-ish pence for every 10 hours they're on but not being "used").

1kwh is about 10p

To save 40p you'd have to reduce your electicity use by 4kwh. Or 400W per hour. As a guide that means you'd have to stop playing your XBox one (~120W when active), turn off your 50" LED TV (~60W when on apparently for modern ones), turn off your fridge (~35W), turn off four 20W CFL lights (80W) and then turn off roughly 1000 mobile phone chargers.

In other words, you're going to struggle to save 40p per night. Wasting power leaving lights on or the TV on a blank screen (my other half does this :mad:) is silly but it's not going to save you a fortune.

dingdongsaving

It's only what was worked out when we had a check with our little reader-gadget. Our elec. costs are unbelievable thanks to the number of computers and synthesising gadgets that run and monitor data from surrounding monitors in the garden and local area. There are some we can turn off and they synth. in the morning though. We had to plug in our reader when on standby and when fully running to work out the difference. We do get to claim back some of our elec. costs from his company though.
We also pay a higher rate thanks to living in an area that doesn't have gas. So no dual fuel discounts here & def. not able to get 10p/kwh
I quite like the monitoring...so will check again as we have 2 new tvs and 2 (actually 3!) of the computers that are running are new (or newer) ones now too.

JustinR1979

I worked my tv out to be 50p for a year of nights on standby.
I didn't know a kettle and toaster had a standby mode.

maas

theEnd wrote: »

Most of the standby scares are a myth. Back in the 60s there might be the odd TV that used almost as much on standby as on, but these don't exist now.

Very few things will use more than 1w. So 10w x 10hrs = 0.1kwh = 1-2p

A saw a test of phone chargers being left plugged in and the worst they found might use a few pence over a whole year.

I was led to believe leaving TV on standby would run up a huge bill. So I tested it;

Before bed, just having the fridge/freezer, 2x TV on standby, oven+microwave switched on (for the clocks)

Registers as 1p an hour on my energy monitor. If I switch them all off and leave the fridge on, it still registers as 1p an hour.

Maybe the older TV might have used tons of energy on standby but my LCD's do not with just having the red light on. Seems it is another myth