[Stuart Wright]

How many electrical items do you leave on standby (or switched on, but not in use like subwoofers) for more than an hour a day?
We're talking about PCs (which are on standby if shut down but left with the rear power button in the on position), televisions, amplifiers, video senders, subwoofers, radios, stereos, games consoles and everything else with a little red LED to indicate that it's waiting for you to press the 'on' button on the remote.
And we're including everything on your property. That's the house, garage, detached home cinema etc. You get the idea.
We're not including telephone/answering machines here as they need to be on 24/7.
Please be as accurate as you can.

[T0rNaDo]

i would say around 10...

used to be 11 with the subwoofer, but since it packed up
and i was told by KEF not to leave it in stand by.. and cost £75 to repair
i agree with them....

[KevD]

I would say in the entire house there are about 12/13 thing that get left on Standby for more than 1 hour a day.

Mainly the AV centre during the day.

[Curly99]

14 in the entire house, why don't things come with a proper off button or switch any more?

Curly

[Pritz]

It's simply staggering how much electricity is wasted each day by stand-by items. Global warming, here we come

[mikim]

5 in total.

Bedroom LCD
Bedroom Freeview
Bedroom DVD

Lounge TV
Lounge Humax

Everything else gets turned off as it has a powerswitch.
Feel bad leaving those on to be honest.

[ISEEDUMBPEOPLE]

A few months ago i would have had 15-20 items on standby all day, everyday. My PC was on for about three years straight. I pretty much switch everything off now, apart from the Sky box.

If the outlet on the wall is 'On', but the appliance is off but has no red light, does that still count as being in standby?

[rEVILospud]

Lounge Freeview PVR
Bedroom Freeview Box
Aerial Distributor
Oh and Modem/Router, which I used to always switch off, but have now moved it and can't get to plug.

That's it; everything else is switched off at the plug.

[eviljohn2]

Less than I thought.

[dereks]

only my sonos zoneplayers,modem and nas

[ijd]

Originally Posted by Curly99

14 in the entire house, why don't things come with a proper off button or switch any more?

Curly

On and off switches can be unreliable if used regularly, so to make equipment more reliable they were left off, my source was a recent manufacturers course (toshiba) as this question was asked

[ijd]

I now switch off at the wall socket any items that will not be used for a while, although i do have an electrisave and most things really do not use enough to make worthwhile household savings as an individual, LCDS use about 0.5 watt on standby, but of course the swim with dolphins and tree huggers of the world would suggest that if we all switched off the planet would last a couple more days if we all switched off of stanby, but then surely we would all die from boredom waiting for things to start up, really the only thing i leave on standby is the pc, all the peripherals get switched at the mains

[Synchro]

Net very useful Poll in my opinion. Clumping everything into one block is almost useless info. The range of "power used on standby" is huge. Buy a socket power meter and it will show you

[Tejstar]

Originally Posted by eviljohn2

Less than I thought.

Me too, less than 5. I'm nearly quite good about keeping appliances/items off that are not needed at the time.

[w3dal]

dvd recorder
sky +
bedroom clock radio
fridge
oven
kettle

thats all i have on in standby

plasma and amp are off when out, so is the pc, router, microwave, etc even the ps3 and wii get switched on when i play it - dont know if thats a good or bad thing?

sure i have read you should leave it all in standby with the red light showing??

LCD in the bedroom is only on when i watch it

Dal

[ijd]

Originally Posted by Synchrouk

Net very useful Poll in my opinion. Clumping everything into one block is almost useless info. The range of "power used on standby" is huge. Buy a socket power meter and it will show you

couldn`t be bothered with one of those plug in meters, what a pain, as i said i use an electrisave that gives me a complete picture of power consumption constantly updated every 6 seconds, turn something on or off and i can see exactly what it is costing or saving pro rata, certainly would bother trying to plug or unplug each individual item, the amount of energy used by most things on standby is minimal, especially new equipment where manufactures are looking at efficiencies, so power used is enough to light an LED bulb and the remote sensor, next to naff all or approx 0.5 watt, if you really are bothered about standby consumption because it will be in there, Remember 1 unit is equal to 1000 watts per hour multiplied by the cost per unit your electricity supplier charges, this varies but at 10p unit an item using 0.5 watt per hour , left on for 2,000 hours , costs 10p easy eh, so yes perhaps if everybody switched of it would start to make a difference, especially as normally generated power produces approx 1kg of greenhouse gas per kilowatt produced

[ufitsy]

How about an option for none?

[Truffle-Sniffer]

Three items only not to bad but if you count me in as I am always on standby then its four

[featherhall]

Absolutely nothing is left on standby in my home. I switch all off at the plug when I leave home or dont use. Sure you lose the clock etc, but I am a stickler for this.

[PoochJD]

HI,

I leave only 5 items on standby:
- Sky Digital set-top box
- DVD HD player/recorder
- Stereo
- Microwave
- Fridge (although this is a debateable item, because if the fridge is switched off, then your food all goes kablooey! So technically, it shouldn't be included, I don't think, as a fridge is an item that needs to always be on.)

Everything else is either switched off with the off-switch, or powered-down so that it isn't in standby mode. About the only occasion I might leave the TV on standby, is if I am going to be switching it back on again within 30 minutes, and the phone happens to ring or doorbell goes. Otherwise, it's the off-switch for me.

It would be nice if a) more products had an actual on/off switch, and b) more products didn't need to be left on standby, especially AV items!

With that all said and done, the worst culprits are offices, government buildings and shops. There are lots of offices up and down the country that leave PC's and monitors on 24/7, alongside vast amounts of internal and external lighting, which must waste a huge amount of money.

Shops are also really bad, as they tend to put lights on all day, irrespective of how light it actually is outside. Plus, shops have a nasty (and silly) habit of leaving the front doors open during opening hours, but then switching their heating system on! Why?! Surely the vast majority of customers aren't so stupid that they need to see the door open, to realise a shop is open for business? And if you do need that to happen, then you probably shouldn't be out on the streets, in the first place, as you're a danger!

Lastly, would the person who voted for leaving more than 50-items on Standby make themselves known, because that's truly shocking! Either you're very rich (you lucky so-and-so) and have shares in your local electricity supplier, or have way too many gadgets!


Pooch

[movieman100]

Originally Posted by Curly99

14 in the entire house, why don't things come with a proper off button or switch any more?

Curly

It's because manufacturers realise we are all to lazy to get up and press it...

[ijd]

Originally Posted by PoochJD

HI,


- Fridge (although this is a debatable item, because if the fridge is switched off, then your food all goes kablooey! So technically, it shouldn't be included, I don't think, as a fridge is an item that needs to always be on.)



Pooch

Therefore the fridge is not left on standby , But left on

[Synchro]

I expect most people's cookers are also left on. Anyone checked their draw?

[SpaceGhost]

Originally Posted by Pritz

Global warming, here we come

Global warming, here we are! Have you been outside today?!

[Badger0-0]

Somewhat embarrassed to admit to quite a lot
I'll list them;

Receiver
Telly
2 computers
Printer
BFD
V+ box
Wii
Sub
cable modem
router
Projector
Receiver upstairs
PJ
Virgin box
3 phone chargers (yes they draw juice)
Daughters lappy on charge constantly
her mini hifi

and I bet I've missed a couple.

That makes 20

and I voted in the 6-10 bracket, having not thought about it properly.

I'm not proud, just lazy

[ani4ani]

It all mounts up, I am afraid, quite ashamed

AMP
Wireless Senders x 3
DVD
PS3
360 [dare not switch it off for fear of it never starting again ]
HD DVD
MCE
PC x 2
LCD x 4
Projector
Sky HD
Sky+
Sky Digital
HDMI Switching Box
Component Switch Box
Router
ADSL Modem
Cooker
Harmony Remote
PDA Base
Camara Base
Printer
Scanner
PSP Charging Base
Shredder

Then the normal stuff...Clocks, Cooker, Alarm Systems, Fridge etc..

I answered honestly though and I do plant trees daily..and never breath out!

[suniil]

AV Receiver
HTPC [sleep mode]
Nintendo Wii
Squeezebox x 3
SKY HD
Printer
Router
Buffallo linkstation [never switch off]
Plasma TV x 1
LCD TV x 1
Sat Receiver [Viaccess] x 1

...and usual items like mobile chargers / powered speakers ....

[Chox1988]

2 lcd's
2 amps
cd player
3 crt tv's
2 monitors
external hdd
scanner
2 printers
2 sky boxes
dvd recorder
dvd player
2 video senders
4 clock radios
microwave
2 freeview boxes
2 phone chargers
wireless router

voted 26-30 bracket with 30 items, inevitably forgot something so 31-35 was probably more realistic. guess its the convenience that forces me to leave things on.

edit: just remembered 3 laptop chargers around the house and the server which are on always, so that puts me at 34, again not proud just lazy.

We have to consider as "standby" also every power transformer

around your house (even if they have not the "red light").
They are used for powering lamps, as laptop rechargers, as cellular phones rechargers, and so on. There are also many items you don't even know to be existant, such as line amplifers for your antenna signal, placed in the roof, or 230V to 12V DC converter placed behind the wall.
Consume power even the items made for power monitoring. :-)

If it is hot, it consumes power.

But I don't think this is the problem. :-)
What about 1kW air conditioners or your 60kW cars? So much than 0,0005kW of your average device in standby. :-)

[sdb123]

2 x Sky+ boxes and a router.