Mobile phone chargers left plugged in?

BennyB_2

I use 2 of these intelligent mains adaptors for my TV's and Computers.

The one I use in the TV also has the NTL box, DVD etc plugged. When I turn off the TV at the button, all the other bits turn off too.

The one for the PC turns off my Printer , Monitor etc, when my PC is turned off. All these use some sort of power adaptor.

Cardew

BennyB wrote: »

I use 2 of these intelligent mains adaptors for my TV's and Computers.

The one I use in the TV also has the NTL box, DVD etc plugged. When I turn off the TV at the button, all the other bits turn off too.

The one for the PC turns off my Printer , Monitor etc, when my PC is turned off. All these use some sort of power adaptor.

Much as these are clever devices, I really doubt that they are money saving.

Let us look at the economics:

They cost £32.90p(including P&P).

Firstly leaving that £32.90 in a building society account produces £2 a year in interest.

Then the device itself consumes 0.4Watts.

It does not work when you switch your TV to standby, only when you switch the TV off at the button.

Now I have my DVD switched off unless I am using it; however assuming I did leave it on standby 24/7 it uses 1.5Watts - so approx £1 a year.

My Sky box I need on for recording/updates etc.

So for me the device would cost money on my TV set up.

The same argument applies to my PC, printer and scanner. Most of the time the printer/scanner are off anyway, and are always off when I switch off my computer and monitor.

Baileys_Babe

We also use the intelliplugs. 1 for the TV, DVD, digi box and the 2nd for the desk top and peripherals where it is a extremly awkward to reach the sockets. Brilliant little things so easy to use. We were given them as christmas presents so we made a saving straight away.

We always unplug and put away phone charges when not in use.

BennyB_2

Cardew wrote: »

Much as these are clever devices, I really doubt that they are money saving.

Let us look at the economics:

They cost £32.90p(including P&P).

Firstly leaving that £32.90 in a building society account produces £2 a year in interest.

Then the device itself consumes 0.4Watts.

It does not work when you switch your TV to standby, only when you switch the TV off at the button.

Now I have my DVD switched off unless I am using it; however assuming I did leave it on standby 24/7 it uses 1.5Watts - so approx £1 a year.

My Sky box I need on for recording/updates etc.

So for me the device would cost money on my TV set up.

The same argument applies to my PC, printer and scanner. Most of the time the printer/scanner are off anyway, and are always off when I switch off my computer and monitor.

If you shop around you can buy them for less than £20.

They work the same when your TV is put to standby. But switching it off at the button eliminates the power used when the TV is on standby. I bought these when I needed some extension leads as the 4 way ones I was using weren't enough

I'm happy to spend a little money on saving energy. After all is this section about being Green..

Cardew

BennyB wrote: »

I'm happy to spend a little money on saving energy. After all is this section about being Green..

To spend your money on anything you wish is, of course, your prerogative.

However this is a Money Saving site and this section is not simply about being 'Green'.

To quote Martin's introduction:

my aim is this is a forum that will cover cost cutting and be enviromentally friendly

I make no criticism of anyone buying such devices, I was merely pointing out that they will not save money for the majority of people.

Given you need to turn off your TV/PC at the switch for them to be fully effective, I suspect they probably use more electricity than they save for many people. That, and when manufacturing/eventual disposal is taken into account, I doubt any of these devices are Green.

jonnyw_2

I went round our house with a plug in meter and have been astonished by the different amount different appliances use on standby.

Digiboxes were about 15 watts. DVD's hardly registered. My printer is about 20 watts. Hi Fi 25 watts was the highest. CD player (ghetto blaster) 15. Yet stand alone radio registers almost nothing even though it runs off a transformer. Likewise phone chargers as mentioned above.

I worked out that using one of these "inteligent switches" was worthwhile for the digibox because they are about a tenner on ebay. And Ive plugged in the DVD as well because there was a spare socket.

Also to turn off the computor monitor powered scanner powered speakers and powered USB television reciever all at the same time when you turn off the computer.

I reckon each of these will pay for themselves in a very short space of time. Better than scrabbling round the floor under the desk and behind the TV every time!

What surprised me was how much our cordless phones are using - about 20 watts each 24 hours a day. And you cant use a timer to knock ours off overnight because this seems to reset the answerphone.

Dont use then on a printer because they dont like being switched off all at once at the mains plug. You have to use the printer off button and let it run through its shutting down cycle before its safe to knock it off at the mains.

Cardew

jonnyw wrote: »

I went round our house with a plug in meter and have been astonished by the different amount different appliances use on standby.

Digiboxes were about 15 watts. DVD's hardly registered. My printer is about 20 watts. Hi Fi 25 watts was the highest. CD player (ghetto blaster) 15. Yet stand alone radio registers almost nothing even though it runs off a transformer. Likewise phone chargers as mentioned above.

I worked out that using one of these "inteligent switches" was worthwhile for the digibox because they are about a tenner on ebay. And Ive plugged in the DVD as well because there was a spare socket.

Also to turn off the computor monitor powered scanner powered speakers and powered USB television reciever all at the same time when you turn off the computer.

I reckon each of these will pay for themselves in a very short space of time. Better than scrabbling round the floor under the desk and behind the TV every time!

What surprised me was how much our cordless phones are using - about 20 watts each 24 hours a day. And you cant use a timer to knock ours off overnight because this seems to reset the answerphone.

Dont use then on a printer because they dont like being switched off all at once at the mains plug. You have to use the printer off button and let it run through its shutting down cycle before its safe to knock it off at the mains.

I find it annoying that the Sky boxes have such high standby consumption(14 watts for mine) However it is needed for recording/updates so is left on standby 24/7 and when powering up after it has been disconnected, it can mess up settings. That said the cost is not enormous - about £5 a year assuming that it could probably be off 50% of the time.

What is particularly annoying is that I have Sky Multi-room which entails a separate Sky box which must be left on standby 24/7 and connected to a telephone line, to comply with Sky Terms and Conditions.(their safeguard that you don't give the box to someone else to use without paying the subscription) I switched it off when I went on holiday and Sky tried to charge me 2 full subscriptions)

Incidentally my cordless phones use 2 watts - not 20 watts.

jonnyw_2

Cardew wrote: »

I find it annoying that the Sky boxes have such high standby consumption(14 watts for mine) However it is needed for recording/updates so is left on standby 24/7 and when powering up after it has been disconnected, it can mess up settings. That said the cost is not enormous - about £5 a year assuming that it could probably be off 50% of the time.

What is particularly annoying is that I have Sky Multi-room which entails a separate Sky box which must be left on standby 24/7 and connected to a telephone line, to comply with Sky Terms and Conditions.(their safeguard that you don't give the box to someone else to use without paying the subscription) I switched it off when I went on holiday and Sky tried to charge me 2 full subscriptions)

Incidentally my cordless phones use 2 watts - not 20 watts.

Double checked the phones. They are running at 20. Thats for base unit plus two handsets. 18 watts difference between our phones. Thats 20 quid a year approx difference in running costs. On those figures it would probably stack up chucking mine and buying one thats cheaper to run.

Why is my Hi Fi 25 watts on standby? It is only a watt or so higher when its actually working. Same with the digiboxes. They only goes up a fraction when turned on rather than on standby.

On the other hand why is the radio so low.

Cardew

jonnyw wrote: »

Double checked the phones. They are running at 20. Thats for base unit plus two handsets. 18 watts difference between our phones. Thats 20 quid a year approx difference in running costs. On those figures it would probably stack up chucking mine and buying one thats cheaper to run.

However doesn't your second handset has a seperate power supply?

I actually have two sets of BT cordless phones. One with 2 handsets used as main phone + the other handset in bedroom.) The other has 4 handsets which are used with the PC but could be 'normal' phones) They are abour 3 years and 1 year old respectively.

The base station and bedroom station each take 2 watts and their power supply has a output of 9.5v 300ma which is about right.

Each of the 4 handsets takes 1 watt and their power supply has an output of 6v 300ma which again would indicate 1 to 2 watts is correct.

What does the power supply on your 20 watt base station give as output?

jonnyw_2

Cardew wrote: »

However doesn't your second handset has a seperate power supply?

I actually have two sets of BT cordless phones. One with 2 handsets used as main phone + the other handset in bedroom.) The other has 4 handsets which are used with the PC but could be 'normal' phones) They are abour 3 years and 1 year old respectively.

The base station and bedroom station each take 2 watts and their power supply has a output of 9.5v 300ma which is about right.

Each of the 4 handsets takes 1 watt and their power supply has an output of 6v 300ma which again would indicate 1 to 2 watts is correct.

What does the power supply on your 20 watt base station give as output?

The base station for the one with 2 handsets is is 800mA 12v. Its a seperate transformer which plugs in to the base station, not built in. No figure printed on it for watts. Its the same for the other hand set. I had them together on the same extention lead to get my useage reading.

They must be about 7 years old.