I've been making the effort to properly switch off various electricals in the house - printers, TVs etc - but it's the chargers that get left on even when they're not charging. Mobile phone chargers are left plugged into the wall and switched on, even when the phone is no longer being charged ... you only have to feel the heat in them to know how much electricity they are wasting. Must try harder!

Gr8 Gadget! Superb! However to be honest i don't see why people just dont be lazy and SWITCH IT OFF!
But... Good on ya! The worlds a better place wit people like you!

Well it's rue that there's no reason to leave something like a modern LCD or plasma TV on standby as they need very little warm up time in order to achieve optimum performance (although many new models keep price down by not actually having an off switch so you must switch off the power socket (use a surge protector adaptor strip so that when you switch on again you don't give the appliance a power surge 'kick' that might damage the circuitry permanently - a good high-clamping Belkin will cost you around £80 including its lifetime insurance that guarantees to replace any plugged in appliance that fails).

It's a bit expensive to spend D£80 per power socket equipping your whole house with surge protectors but it is worth it in the long un, especially if you have problems getting your home contents insurer to shell out on new for old replacements of electrically damaged items every time there is an outside normal tolerance surge from the electricity supply.

Just bear in mnd that switching off your entertainment system power socket you might also switch off (and wipethe memory of) your video/DVD recorder/hard disk recorder that you could have set to record something overnight. (Not everyn type has a backup battery and even those that do may run out if youn sleep in a few hours).

But there are some appoliances that need to 'run warm' for particular reasons.

My rather exotic hi-fi needs around two hours to warm up the circuitry after sitch on before its sonic performance is good enough for me to listen to and if I switch off the vacuum tube chasis every night I seriously shorten the life of the valves with a net loss and major inconvenience because new ones will have to be bought in about half the time they would normally last if the heaters were left on permanently.

Fortunately, my circuit heaters aren't very expensive to run but some foreigh (especially American) vacuum tube circuits have a ridculously high standby consumption (I have come across hi-fi amplifiers that stand by on over 200W) so before you buy a top-notch hi-fi component, check its standby power consumption and agonize over whether it's green enough (or affordable to run).

Manufacturers say that if you can afford to buy this kit then you wont be worrying about the size of your electricity bill but that's not the point here of course.

Similarly, the screens I use for my computer and television will degrade faster if they are switched off every day than if they are left on standby. I can't afford to replace them more often than strictly necessarr.

Once I have an electrical appliance I like, I will expect it to perform properly for several years as I'm not one who changes their products in response to fashion or unless there's a reqally cogent reason to upgrade. Thus, I do notice the effect of degradation perfhaps more than others as I plan for an appliance to last me several years without breaking down or losing its optimum performance.

Switching off a Sky box runs the risk that it willl not switch on again. Sky boxes are normally designe to perform fautltessly for a year but after that it os quite likel that when you switch one off at night the power button will not switch it on in the morning. Sky likes you to take out an annual insurance after the first year of ownership in order to have the possibility of servicing or rpplacement without an extr charge when this happens.

An annual service contract isn't ceap and lots of organizations like Whch? tell you that long-term appliance insurance is a bad investment but then it's even more expensive and problematic to arange and to wait for an engineering call-out plus the inconvenience of having to do without your appliance (the insurance may guarantee you a replacement or loan appliance while yours is being fixed)

Many appliances with time/date functions hae a backup battery but there are still new products being reoeased that don't. If I switch of my TV, video and microwave every night I need to spend some minutes each morning reprogramming them - fortunately I don't have any trouble remembering the command sequences so I don't need to refer to the instructions constantly but I'm sure that isn't a trick evveryone has in their mental arsenal.

So on the whole a mixed approach is advisable - cut power to anything that won't suffer as a result.

If you go around the house at night switching off at wall sockets, you'll be switching off the DECT phones, all of which hav a mains powered base/charging station.

Remember to switch the DECTs back on in the morning otherwise you'll get no phole calls because they won't ring without being powered up.

Leave the handsets on their chargers for a couple of hours to charge up as they will not have charged while switched off during the night. If you remove the handsets from the cradles straignt after switching on, the handset batteries will be flat and you won't be able to call out or to receive calls.

I used to always leave my tv on standby but once you get into the habit of turning it off at the wall you find yourself even turning it off everytime you leave the room. People are just lazy and cant be bothered to get up off the sofa to switch the plug off. I think a lot of the lack of recycling and energy saving is down to people who are lazy and cant be bothered to make the effort. I think this is a very selfish attitude to take and people need to start realising how important it is to start doing their bit!

I have been turning off all switches for about a year now and NEVER leave anything on standby, it is difficult to say how much I have
saved financially due to the increase in electricity costs, but I know I have made a slight difference to cutting my carbon emissions

Helen

Switch on/off at the wall outlet if your room is warm (centrally heated or otherwise). But it may be better to leave sensitive electronic equipment on standby if the room is cold and/or humid; thus preventing a possible current spike damaging the equipment when turned on/off at the wall outlet.

Equipment damaged in this way simply adds to the pollution bill whether repaired or sent to landfill.

As I grow plants to sell,(I am only an amateur), I used to set the thermostat of my electric fan heater in my g/h to 45ºF in winter to protect a full g/h of plants. I now set it to 40ºF and although I have rooted fuchsia cuttings it appears to do them no harm.

Has anyone any advice on this product unsure what to buy, wish to turn off tv videorecorder and sky box etc without crawling on the floor.

i have been switching televisions and dvd players etc off for quite a while now not only do i feel im helping the planet, i have seen a noted difference in my electric bills. the only problem was getting my partner to do the same but he is getting the hang of it

This problem annoyed me so much I invented a solution. It's OK to turn off or unplug chargers if you happen to be around when the phone's finished charging, but I'm normally asleep. My company Enviroplug (www.enviroplug.com) will be bringing Charge Shield to market shortly.

over the years i have tried to reduce my use of electricity,as an electrician.i installed storage heaters economy 7.and with the very cheap time clocks,timed a lot of daily tasks to switch on in the hours of economy7 e.g.water heater)the use of low energy lamps have come into question as regards brilliance and disposing of used lamps which i know are dangerous,in the meantime i use lower wattage lamps in places such as hallways e.g.)i have told some of my friends that to be more aware of thier bills. to remember that for every 1p you use a day it is 1£on your quarterly electric bill (approx.92 daysx 1p it got quite a reaction how easy it is to save money when you know how .This is my own idea ,i have others that i have passed on over the years i am 65 so i have been around a bit,20 years ago ias part of my work i went to houses that had very high bills and ad vised how to reduce them,it amazes me that it has all come around again

What boggles the mind is the naivety of building in problems like this! Imagine the meeting when someone said "I know"..."why don't we make the TV impossible to turn off!". We noticed that if we actually switched off at the plug all these devices tend to reset - our video has to be completely reprogrammed every time!

We simply don't look at the broader picture when we make these types of decisions!

What are we doing today that we will regret tomorrow?

--
Henry Richards
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griinu Compare
http://www.griinucompare.co.uk/blog/
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I switch everything off standby, but had completely forgotten about the DECT phones.

As I have a regular plug-in phone next to the bed, there is no need to leave the DECTs on at all - I can't believe I hadn't realised that one.

Thanks so much, guidewell :)

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I'm finding it's harder than I thought to stop using the TV standby! I don't watch much television but when I do I often find myself falling asleep on the couch. It's so easy to pick up the remote and turn it to standby rather than rousing myself from a sleepy stupour and walking across the room.

I sincerly intend to try harder though!

Georgia

I think what made me stop or atleast cut down my consumption was to work out exactly how much it costed me for example to boil a kettle, for one, two and three cups... to use the microwave for five minutes (I dont have an oven btw, cant affoprd it so pls dont think I assumed this is the most energy efficient way to go!) to leave the tv on standby...

work it out: keep your eye on the meter, note every change down, it can actually become quite addictive and you can end up knowing everything from the cost of turning on a light to useing a power drill to put up shelves... but useful if your not able to always find the motivation after a 14 hour shift at work!

from jennie

we have the solution for kperch's comments about the mobile phone charger a harsher consequence of leaving your mobile phone charger on 24 hrs a day is the massively increased fire risk. i was speaking to an insurance broker the other day & in his opinion most household electrical fires are due to phone chargers. our solution is the standby eliminator plug. it works by sensing the decrease from full power consumption to standby power, it then reacts by cutting off the electricty from the appliance after 2 minutes.
per appliance you attach it to (TV, Stereo, phone charger etc..)this equates to a significant reduction in your carbon footprint plus up to %10 saving on you electricity bill.
it never forgets so its perfect for the forgetful people out there.

see www.nomorestandby.com
for more info

I am trying with this one - I agree on the chargers and things like the TV on standby are the worst offenders