Just taken a watt meter to measure applances in living room

Poppycat

Right heres goes

Samsung 26" LCD (freeview) Stanby=19W On=101W
Liteon DVDrecorder 5006 Stanby=14W On=19W to 16W just switched on
PC Stanby=12W On= varies between 122w-170w (156w on boot) No pc use other than turned on
Humax 9200 (dual tuner pvr) Stanby=12W On=28W (no recording or playback recording)
Dell laptop charger just switched on not connected to laptop 4W

We also have a lamp with 3 small helogen bulbs G something or other and when its plugged in and not in use that uses 4W or 54W maximum but it has a sliding switch which can dim the bulbs


surprising how much use. We do tend to switch off at mains when going to bed, but I am going to get a extension cable which has switches on so things not in use that day can be switched off

Cardew

Are you sure about those consumption figures? They seem very high.

Nearly all modern LCD TVs have very low consumption on standby.

Acording to the Samsung UK website all their LCD TVs have a standby consumption of less than 1 Watt see:

http://www.samsung.com/uk/products/television/tftlcd/le26r88bdxxeu.asp?page=Specifications

I have checked loads of TVs and less than 1 watt on standby is typical(even my 8 year old CRT TVs are 0.6watt - 32" Sony and 0.9Watt -25" Panasonic)

The 40+" Sony Bravias are 0.5 Watt.

What meter are you using?

Poppycat

I am using the tchibo TCM watt meter, I will have a check again tomorrow just to double check but I just plugged meter into a multi socket think for each applance turned on and monitored meter for a minute or so depending on appliance example took longer for pc as it had to boot up

The Samsung monitor we have is LE26R41BDX

beetplek

Poppycat, keep at it, it has inspired me to turn alot of things off, and even unplug things that i hardly ever use.

greyteam1959

Well I agree with Cardew.......
Figures are a load of rubbish......I would check what you are doing with the watt meter.

Cardew

Poppycat wrote: »

I am using the tchibo TCM watt meter, I will have a check again tomorrow just to double check but I just plugged meter into a multi socket think for each applance turned on and monitored meter for a minute or so depending on appliance example took longer for pc as it had to boot up

The Samsung monitor we have is LE26R41BDX

Poppycat,
Have you checked those readings, or perhaps more importantly the suitability of your ‘wattmeter’?

This over-emphasis on how much power standby consumption wastes, by both the uninformed media and reinforced by posts like yours, is IMO counter productive.

Post after Post on this forum complains about high electricity costs, and invariably the first thing the poster states is “and I don’t leave my TV on standby at night” or they get replies indicating that turning off their TV at the wall will make a huge saving. Witness the poster ‘inspired’ by your contribution.

For the average household, the difference between those who religiously turn off appliances and those who don’t bother can be measured in pence each month.

I am not saying don’t switch off, but concentration on standby consumption detracts from more important savings that are available. Most families waste far more by boiling more water than required in their kettle.

P.S.
Samsung 'monitor'? isn't it a TV?

Poppycat

I haven't checked again but I did check my kettle which is 3kw and it came up with that limit. Sorry the Samsung is a TV, I do use it as a monitor come entertainment display too

I also only boil enough water for cups I use in the kettle we bought a new one earlier this year which has a gauge on it, we also careful of how much water we use due to water meter, its not easy with in a family house.

We bought some trailing extensions leads yesterday so we can use it for switching off appliances when we dont use them, like TV, PVR etc niot expensive solution but I do take your point that you can easily overkill and spend load when you dont need too.

We are also replacing most of our bulbs in the house, we already have the normal low energy bulbs but we want to replace gu10's, spots, candle bulbs, it will costs quite a but in short term

Thanks for your help

withabix

When you use those plug in meters, don't forget that the meter itself will probably be using some power and presumably will register that.

Also there will be energy losses between the plug socket and the electrical appliance, so those must be accounted for.

Buying extra cables isn't 'green', as energy and resources will have been used to make them and CO2 produced.

Don't forget that using low energy lightbulbs will make your house colder, as the difference between a 60 watt traditional light bulb and a 7 watt low energy bulb is 53 watts of heat energy.

So, when you've got your heating on, it will use more gas (or whatever) to warm your house up to the same temperature than it did when you had ordinary lightbulbs..

Cardew

Poppycat wrote: »

I haven't checked again but I did check my kettle which is 3kw and it came up with that limit. Sorry the Samsung is a TV, I do use it as a monitor come entertainment display too

I also only boil enough water for cups I use in the kettle we bought a new one earlier this year which has a gauge on it, we also careful of how much water we use due to water meter, its not easy with in a family house.

We bought some trailing extensions leads yesterday so we can use it for switching off appliances when we dont use them, like TV, PVR etc niot expensive solution but I do take your point that you can easily overkill and spend load when you dont need too.

We are also replacing most of our bulbs in the house, we already have the normal low energy bulbs but we want to replace gu10's, spots, candle bulbs, it will costs quite a but in short term

Thanks for your help

Poppycat,
The point is that you have posted information on standby consumption that is almost certainly inaccurate and misleading; and haven't retracted it. e.g. Your TV using 19 watts on standby - it is probably less than 1 watt. If it is using 19 watts I suspect you have a fault, that could even be dangerous; unlikely but possible.

Some wattmeters will acurately display high consumption - like your 3kW kettle - but are simply not designed to display low consumption like standby wattage.

I don't know how much your trailing extension leads cost, but I doubt if you will ever recover their costs.

Poppycat

I have taken another reading and the Samsung is still reading 19w on standby

I even plugged the tv direct in the mains and it still shows 19w

The trailer lead 6 sockets cost £5.99 from Wilko's

If the meter is wrong and the figures are less obviously it will take longer to recoup any money spent, however I have yet to see any evidence that it is, certainly shows correct watt for a kettle okay high consumption, you may be right about low powered devices, but as yet there is no real evidence, I also cant find any info what standby the tv is suppose to be, as your initial post doesn't show my tv due to it being almost 2 year old model

Poppycat

Of course like most things it does cost energy and thus co2 to produce many goods.

The energy megaman bulbs actually do get warm, well the gu10's do anyhow, perhaps not has hot than halogen, obviously heat is a by product and the less heat the less energy used.

What I meant to say in my previously post and I didn't explain properly was that heating is paramount in my house due to my daughters condition she is prone to the cold as is OH. Like most people we dont have a huge amount of money, so to me savings and the added extra of lowering co2's is great.

However last Winter having moved house, our bills were such that we could not sustain that amount on heating so this year we are trying to save, so we have spent all our money on insulation, log burner and energy saving bulbs, we already used energy saving bulbs but the more conventional type. Our new house unfortunately had a lot of dimmers, and candle bulbs so we are changing them, by getting rid of the dimmers and using megaman bulbs as they tend to be better than the other energy bulbs we seen ie size of them primarily.

withabix wrote: »

Buying extra cables isn't 'green', as energy and resources will have been used to make them and CO2 produced.

Don't forget that using low energy lightbulbs will make your house colder, as the difference between a 60 watt traditional light bulb and a 7 watt low energy bulb is 53 watts of heat energy.

So, when you've got your heating on, it will use more gas (or whatever) to warm your house up to the same temperature than it did when you had ordinary lightbulbs..