Standby power consumption

Norman_Castle

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-61235367

"The figures are based on research conducted on appliances in 2019 but have been updated by British Gas to reflect recent price increases.The organisation, which promotes sustainability and energy efficiency, did not give exact details of how it came to this figure."Stats or prices related to individual appliances depend on several factors, including model, functionality and individual usage,"

"British Gas used average costs of wattage from different manufacturers' average models when left on standby to calculate its figures.

It says a TV clocks up £24.61 per year"

To use £24.61 per needs a standby consumption of around 10 watts. The one watt initiative has been in place for over 10 years capping standby consumption at 1 then 0.5 watts since 2013.

Its no surprise they won't give details of how it came to this figure. I suspect their research consisted of reading poorly researched rubbish on the internet.

Ultrasonic

QrizB said:

Of course it might depend on what you call "vampire"; fridge-freezers, broadband routers, smart speakers and internet-connected washing machines aren't things you'd normally switch off and they're providing a continuous service (OK maybe not the washing machine) so they'll contribute to the cold-and-dark baseload but might be out of scope for the purposes of these calculations.

I'd say fridge-freezers are definitely out, firstly as they shouldn't be switched off and secondly as they use power intermittently rather than continuously. My own background power usage I referred to was for when the fridge-freezer compressor isn't running.

jvjack

I dont think they would include fridges as vampire. They mean laptops tv mobile phones etc.

Ultrasonic

jvjack said:

I dont think they would include fridges as vampire. They mean laptops tv mobile phones etc.

I don't actually think laptops or mobile phones count either. We're talking things that are on and using power when they aren't actually doing anything useful. 

QrizB

Ultrasonic said:

My own background power usage I referred to was for when the fridge-freezer compressor isn't running.

I can see I'll have to get up at dark o'clock sometime soon and see what my smart meter IHD says! Maybe at the weekend when I don't have to work the following day.

(It's easier in the winter months when the solar still hasn't kicked in at 8am  ...)

jvjack

Nihal Arthanayake - 27/04/2022 - BBC Sounds

37min 30seconds in  Martin lewis on vampire.
Says he thinks British Gas data is from Canada.
 

Norman_Castle

jvjack said:

Nihal Arthanayake - 27/04/2022 - BBC Sounds

37min 30seconds in  Martin lewis on vampire.
Says he thinks British Gas data is from Canada.
 

38.05 Martin Lewis correctly says its bllox.

jvjack

He does.
Interesting to see what his team comes up with.
You'd think it would be straightforward to know how much all these plugs etc use.
Guess its not.

Ultrasonic

The only real complication is that every household has a different mix of devices.

I don't know why some are so keen to just totally dismiss what really aren't crazy numbers. Whatever the figure for an individual household, there is some scope for money saving if people really want to.

Cardew

Ultrasonic said:

The only real complication is that every household has a different mix of devices.

I don't know why some are so keen to just totally dismiss what really aren't crazy numbers. Whatever the figure for an individual household, there is some scope for money saving if people really want to.

Well IMO some numbers are crazy; the TV standby figure harks back to the days when all the valves in the set had heaters!

The problem is that some people think all they have to do is switch off the TV at the socket to drastically reduce their electricity bills and they don't concentrate on other savings e.g. always filling the kettle.

I have lost count of the number of posts complaining about high consumption that state ' and I always switch off the TV at the socket'