Vampire devices

cherry76

Been trying to reduce electricity. My washing machine is always plugged it, it does not have an on and off socket and it is in a difficult place to unplug. Does it still uses a small amount of electricity? I only need to turn on washing machine when I want to use it. The same for my digital clock calendar I need to turn it off at night as the bright light disturb me. There is a switch on and off button. Do I need to switch off from the socket as well. Thanks

grumbler

Do you not have a smart meter? If you don't, there are two types of energy monitors.

• Plug-in (plug-through) - you you can use it to check each device separately - https://www.google.com/search?q=plug-in+energy+monitor

• Clip-on - you can use it for monitoring your house total instant energy consumption and see the effect of switching on and off single appliances. E.g.

ComicGeek

cherry76 said:

Been trying to reduce electricity. My washing machine is always plugged it, it does not have an on and off socket and it is in a difficult place to unplug. Does it still uses a small amount of electricity? I only need to turn on washing machine when I want to use it. The same for my digital clock calendar I need to turn it off at night as the bright light disturb me. There is a switch on and off button. Do I need to switch off from the socket as well. Thanks

For the washing machine it's very unlikely that it will consume electricity when not operating, you don't need to physically unplug it.

The digital clock will consume a small amount of electricity when the display is turned off, but unlikely to be enough to worry about. If you turn it off at the socket then it's likely to need the time resetting every time - unless there's a battery, but that's using energy anyway.

The big savings tend to be from Sky/sat/free view boxes and TVs on standby, and then Microwaves with digital clocks etc.

SadieO

ComicGeek said:

The big savings tend to be from Sky/sat/free view boxes and TVs on standby, and then Microwaves with digital clocks etc.

This page is a useful read. Apparently a TV watched four hours a day and left on standby the rest of the time would cost £1.24 a year. Not exactly worth stressing about in my opinion! There's a lot more you can do to reduce energy use (eg think about cooking methods, how long you have the heating on for and at what temperature etc). 

ComicGeek

SadieO said:

ComicGeek said:

The big savings tend to be from Sky/sat/free view boxes and TVs on standby, and then Microwaves with digital clocks etc.

This page is a useful read. Apparently a TV watched four hours a day and left on standby the rest of the time would cost £1.24 a year. Not exactly worth stressing about in my opinion! There's a lot more you can do to reduce energy use (eg think about cooking methods, how long you have the heating on for and at what temperature etc). 

Depends on how old your TV is - our TVs are more than 10 years old and have a signficant standby load. I have an accessible extension lead by our TV and just switch this off at the same time as turning off the TV. The combined standby load for our 2 TVs is 35W, and is about 250 kWh across the year when not in use. At my current energy rates that could be around £70, so definitely worth doing for us. Easier/cheaper to switch off than buy a new TV, and definitely not £2.48/yr for us.

Our 2 Sky boxes use 19W each on standby, but that increases when recording/downloading. They take ages to reboot when turned off at the power, so I tend not to turn these off so much. But still costing me potentially around £78 per year. 

The whole point is not to take any quoted figure from a website as fact, every household will be slightly different. If you can't accurately measure what your energy usage is then it's very difficult to know where the easy wins are. By using various monitoring devices over the years I've worked out exactly what forms part of our baseload usage (the usage which exists 24 hrs a day without anyone realising) and worked to reduce this.

Ebe_Scrooge

ComicGeek said:

cherry76 said:

Been trying to reduce electricity. My washing machine is always plugged it, it does not have an on and off socket and it is in a difficult place to unplug. Does it still uses a small amount of electricity? I only need to turn on washing machine when I want to use it. The same for my digital clock calendar I need to turn it off at night as the bright light disturb me. There is a switch on and off button. Do I need to switch off from the socket as well. Thanks

 Microwaves with digital clocks etc.

I've heard this elsewhere, but it doesn't make sense to me.  If you think about it, a digital watch will run for years on a little button-cell battery, it must take a tiny amount of electricity to run.  Or am I missing something?

BTW, I'm not arguing - genuinely interested!

greensalad

I recommend getting a smart plug like a Tapo, one with the energy monitoring, and using it around the house to check various outputs. Plus anything easy you can just switch off. (I switch off the printer/shredder in the cupboard for example as it's an easily accessible switch. And I unplug the TV from the wall when we go away for a few days).

DullGreyGuy

Ebe_Scrooge said:

ComicGeek said:

cherry76 said:

Been trying to reduce electricity. My washing machine is always plugged it, it does not have an on and off socket and it is in a difficult place to unplug. Does it still uses a small amount of electricity? I only need to turn on washing machine when I want to use it. The same for my digital clock calendar I need to turn it off at night as the bright light disturb me. There is a switch on and off button. Do I need to switch off from the socket as well. Thanks

 Microwaves with digital clocks etc.

I've heard this elsewhere, but it doesn't make sense to me.  If you think about it, a digital watch will run for years on a little button-cell battery, it must take a tiny amount of electricity to run.  Or am I missing something?

BTW, I'm not arguing - genuinely interested!

A digital watch typically has a non-light emitting LCD screen (or at least not without a button being pressed) and so the draw is a tiny amount to count time and a tiny amount every second or minute (depending on the display) to change the display.

A microwave typically as an illuminated display so the draw to keep time is tiny but to keep it shining bright is more substantial. Its going to be nothing compared to running the device or something else but its certainly a lot more than a digital watch. Online estimates range a fair amount but at worst is circa 60kwh per year and at best 3 kWh

ComicGeek

DullGreyGuy said:

Ebe_Scrooge said:

ComicGeek said:

cherry76 said:

Been trying to reduce electricity. My washing machine is always plugged it, it does not have an on and off socket and it is in a difficult place to unplug. Does it still uses a small amount of electricity? I only need to turn on washing machine when I want to use it. The same for my digital clock calendar I need to turn it off at night as the bright light disturb me. There is a switch on and off button. Do I need to switch off from the socket as well. Thanks

 Microwaves with digital clocks etc.

I've heard this elsewhere, but it doesn't make sense to me.  If you think about it, a digital watch will run for years on a little button-cell battery, it must take a tiny amount of electricity to run.  Or am I missing something?

BTW, I'm not arguing - genuinely interested!

A digital watch typically has a non-light emitting LCD screen (or at least not without a button being pressed) and so the draw is a tiny amount to count time and a tiny amount every second or minute (depending on the display) to change the display.

A microwave typically as an illuminated display so the draw to keep time is tiny but to keep it shining bright is more substantial. Its going to be nothing compared to running the device or something else but its certainly a lot more than a digital watch. Online estimates range a fair amount but at worst is circa 60kwh per year and at best 3 kWh

Again our microwave is pretty old, over 10 years old. I've actually individually monitored each appliance to calculate standby usage, and ours uses 15W to just display 00:00 on the front (I never actually set the time on it as it resets every time I turn it off anyway). We only use it for maximum of 5-10 minutes each day, so that's around 131 kWh/yr - which could cost me £37 just to display the time. Modern microwaves could be more efficient in displaying the time, but it's not a function that I want or need on a microwave anyway. So I just switch it off when not in use.

The standby usage of our new ovens (with digital time display!) is less than 1W - the induction hob is just under 2W - the dishwasher and washing machine are zero (and are less than 1W when they are set on a timer and waiting to start) - our coffee machine is less than 1W. So all of those get left on.

So in my particular/peculiar household, that's £185 saved per year from turning off the 2 TVs, 2 sky boxes and microwave when not in use. Other households with newer and more efficient devices might save less than this and therefore might not bother, but articles shouldn't assume that everyone has the very latest technology. My parents' TV is even worse in terms of energy usage, and gets fewer hours of use, so technically they have a larger saving by not leaving in on standby.

littleboo

SadieO said:

ComicGeek said:

The big savings tend to be from Sky/sat/free view boxes and TVs on standby, and then Microwaves with digital clocks etc.

This page is a useful read. Apparently a TV watched four hours a day and left on standby the rest of the time would cost £1.24 a year. Not exactly worth stressing about in my opinion! There's a lot more you can do to reduce energy use (eg think about cooking methods, how long you have the heating on for and at what temperature etc). 

I don't believe that calculation can be correct. Using a unit charge of 28p, that suggests a TV on for 4 hrs per day consumes only 4.5 KwH per year, excluding standby.

Arfa__

ComicGeek said:

SadieO said:

ComicGeek said:

The big savings tend to be from Sky/sat/free view boxes and TVs on standby, and then Microwaves with digital clocks etc.

This page is a useful read. Apparently a TV watched four hours a day and left on standby the rest of the time would cost £1.24 a year. Not exactly worth stressing about in my opinion! There's a lot more you can do to reduce energy use (eg think about cooking methods, how long you have the heating on for and at what temperature etc). 

Depends on how old your TV is - our TVs are more than 10 years old and have a signficant standby load. I have an accessible extension lead by our TV and just switch this off at the same time as turning off the TV. The combined standby load for our 2 TVs is 35W, and is about 250 kWh across the year when not in use. At my current energy rates that could be around £70, so definitely worth doing for us. Easier/cheaper to switch off than buy a new TV, and definitely not £2.48/yr for us.

Yep, it really depends on your TV. Got three Sony TVs in the house of varying ages:

1. An ancient 46X2000, uses 250W in operation! but too little to register when on standby.
2. A ~10 year old 46EX653, uses 30W ish in operation, but 10W when on standby
3. A 12 year old 55HX953,  users 70W in operation, but 15-20W when on standby
   

So go figure that all out. Either way, until you measure stuff, it's tough to predict.

EU regs do stipulate that TV's and other audio/video kit produced after 2013 should not consume more than 0.5W in standby. However, it does also say 'networked kit' should not use more than 3-12W in standby. Problem is, almost all Smart TVs these days are networked... So I bet they wangle their way into the second bracket and will use more as they regularly connect out to check for updates and so forth.

(https://ec.europa.eu/info/energy-climate-change-environment/standards-tools-and-labels/products-labelling-rules-and-requirements/energy-label-and-ecodesign/energy-efficient-products/mode-standby-and-networked-standby_en)

I'd also like to question that quoted cost of £1.24 a year, seems far too low, possibly it predates the latest electric prices. Plugging in values for a 30W TV, used 4hr a day at 26.5p p/kWh alone equates to ~3p/day or ~£11/year. (https://www.theenergyshop.com/guides/electricity-cost-calculator)