Background Electricity Usage 8760 hours a year

cx6

With the looming electricity rise I have been going round the house checking the power usage of 'always on' things.

The first thing I found is my clock radio by the bed. I use my mobile phone for alarms now so no idea why I left it on. It uses 6w continuously.

There are 8760 hours in a year. 6 x 8760 is 52 kwh a year. The price cap rate is 28.4p per kwh so that clock radio alone is costing me nearly £15 a year.

It is off now and I will continue hunting.

Norman_Castle

How are you measusuring the consumption? The wattage shown on labels is a maximum offered to prevent socket overloading.

Ultrasonic

I tend to think my total background energy use is fairly low at 29 W but a contribution will be an old radio alarm clock. You've got me wondering now what this uses so I'll check over the weekend.

cx6

measuring it using a plug-in thingy

Norman_Castle

6w is a lot. I've got older Roberts and Sony FM radios that use 1.5w when switched on. The clock display must be power hungry.

david1946

My Sky Q box uses 25 watts so 219 kWh a year which is the most power hungry device I have which is on continuously.

cx6

david1946 said:

My Sky Q box uses 25 watts so 219 kWh a year which is the most power hungry device I have which is on continuously.

Except maybe the fridge / freezer

cx6

Norman_Castle said:

6w is a lot. I've got a older Roberts and Sony FM radios that use 1.5w when switched on. The clock display must be power hungry.

Yes I think it must be the display - it is quite bright and large (one of the reasons I bought it many moons ago)

razord

david1946 said:

My Sky Q box uses 25 watts so 219 kWh a year which is the most power hungry device I have which is on continuously.

They've definitely done significant work on this recently. I've got a v3 1TB box and it's standby usage is 11.5-12.5w (it seems to either be 11.5 or 12.5w... seemingly random each time I switch it off!) - that said, I do have all the wifi aspects turned off, as it's all wired for me.

cx6

Just tested my Samsung wireless mobile phone charger which is always plugged in. It used 0.045kwh in a 24 hr period (no charging done, just plugged in sitting there).

that's about 16 units nearly £8 a year and is another thing getting unplugged

Benny2020

Technically those items are heating your house so not actually wasted in the winter.