What appliance uses most electricity

mech_2

SwanJon wrote: »

Then I have a solution: http://www.byebyestandby.co.uk/

Put one of these on the end of an extension (leaving out your Sky+ etc if desired), and can turn them all off from the comfort of your sofa.
One for the PC and associated gumph, another for TV etc. Who said I was lazy?

Although their suggestions that it'd pay for itself in the first year means a saving of £30, closer to 3% than 10% - and that's a company trying to sell it to you.

Their website doesn't agree with you. It says £38 a year, which is 10% of an average electricity bill. Maybe your electricity bill is over £1000 a year, but most peoples' isn't.

Personally I wouldn't buy one of those things. But then I'm not someone who believes switching something off with a different switch to the standby switch is a huge effort.

mech_2

Cardew wrote: »

Mech,
We could go round and round in circles on this subject.

Nobody is advocating that you shouldn't switch of your TV and freeview box at night - unless of course you are recording something late at night!! Or any other non-essential/desired appliance.

However you and I both know that to talk of saving 10% of your electricity bill is far removed from reality.

No, you merely believe it's not realistic, I have read the figures to know that it is realistic. If a typical figure in the UK is ~10%, some people will be using far more than that. Especially low users who don't have an electric shower or immersion heater. We don't necessarily have fewer things on standby just because we don't use electricity for heating water. Read DEFRA's figures, read studies with similar results in other countries. If you want to put something in its proper context, you can't just stubbornly ignore all the facts.

All this skepticism about standby savings is doing damage. Look at moonrakerz's assertion that topping up loft insulation will save more. If you do the arithmetic you find it doesn't. Even if you ignore the loss of interest on the investment, topping up from 50mm to 270mm of loft insulation saves less than an average household's standby consumption even after you break even. Saying "no one is saying don't switch things off" misses the point entirely. If you give people the idea that it isn't worth doing, they won't bother to do it.

Cos its a pain! - I have better things to do - like posting boring missives on MSE.

It's less of a pain to wander around the house each day than to just use a different switch to switch things off?

SwanJon

mech wrote: »

Their website doesn't agree with you. It says £38 a year, which is 10% of an average electricity bill. Maybe your electricity bill is over £1000 a year, but most peoples' isn't.

Sorry, was thinking of energy bills - Gas + Electricity. If you heat with electricity you could easily get that high.