How to convince a family member to be energy conscious

MattMattMattUK

Alnat1 said:

Our Plusnet set top box was using too much electricity for my liking, so it goes off at the plug now when not in use, as does the TV. I do leave the router on so we always have Wifi.

The 5 minute wake up on the set top box is a bit annoying but has also stopped us turning on the TV just for background noise when we're not really watching. Now the TV often doesn't go on until evening so it has been a bigger win than I imagined.

It draws 6-10 watts in standby. The TV will be drawing less than 0.5w. That represents around £24 per year saving which some might consider worth it, but I am not sure I could be bothered with the hassle and shortening the device life for £2 pcm.

GasPants

Thank you for the entertaining replies. I know that the PC consumes 12W when it is truly switched off - various USB things are still lit up.  I will attempt to plug the energy monitor into the PC socket to see how much it uses over 24 hours. No doubt I'll be accused of harassment. 

The problem with looking at items in isolation is that they do not tend to consume much i.e. 5-15W here or there. However, it is the cumulative effect of many low-powered devices that can be a problem.

Many mickles make a muckle.
 

jon81uk

Sleep mode is basically off for all modern devices, just leave it at that.

brook_heather

GasPants said:

Thank you for the entertaining replies. I know that the PC consumes 12W when it is truly switched off - various USB things are still lit up.  I will attempt to plug the energy monitor into the PC socket to see how much it uses over 24 hours. 

If USB devices are still powered in sleep mode then you will need to go into the BIOS and make sure S5 mode is enabled - there may be other deep sleep options which can also be enabled to reduce sleep power consumption.

ariarnia

linked to this (it's hard for people to understand why they should use less if they dont understand what they've used). can anyone explain how the units on the metre relate to billable units? 

electric seems strait forward with an opening read of 1004, a closing read of 1133 meaning a bill for 129 kwh at the contracted rate. 

but gas is harder to understand (not sure if it's a metric vs imperial thing?)

opening read of 9227, closing read of 9228, a bill for 32.16 kwh 

meter is cubic feet,

MWT

GasPants said:

Thank you for the entertaining replies. I know that the PC consumes 12W when it is truly switched off - various USB things are still lit up.  I will attempt to plug the energy monitor into the PC socket to see how much it uses over 24 hours. No doubt I'll be accused of harassment.

It would feel like a reasonable accusation at this point to be honest.

I'd be inclined to let the current change to using 'sleep' mode settle in and go hunting for other areas to save on before returning to the PC again as it is obviously a point of contention.

Also consider that unless there is anything important being powered by the always on USB ports, the PC can just be turned off at the socket overnight.

Robin9

Keep a daily chart of usage - perhaps £ (or pints equivalent) -  right under his nose.  If you have a Smart perhaps historic info going back to April 1st

mumf

Honest question: Why would a person not want to save money? We turn stuff off as a routine. Just sayin’…

jon81uk

mumf said:

Honest question: Why would a person not want to save money? We turn stuff off as a routine. Just sayin’…

Convience.
Its easier to use the TV remote compared to standing up and pushing buttons.

wittynamegoeshere

I don't understand the big deal about switching a PC off.  I switch my desk off at the wall every day, which kills the power to the PC, monitor, lamp, printers etc etc.  All in one click.  I've also set the BIOS so that after a "power fail" it switches on.  So I just have to switch on at the wall and it all powers up - again, just one click.  I've set it to logon automatically, so it's zero hassle.

What's the objection to shutting down?  In the olden days you sat there for a couple of minutes looking at the Windows startup screen.  These days, with an SSD and a PC that's not riddled with bloatware, it should take a few seconds to switch on.

A rebooted PC always works much better than one that's been on for weeks, mainly as it clears out the memory.  Check Hibernate mode is disabled too, it's just not necessary these days and means it recovers from where it was so you don't get a freshly booted PC.

Has he said why he doesn't want to switch it off?  Does he leave the car engine running while not using it?  Perhaps leave the oven on too, you never know when you might fancy baking something in a hurry.