[Gliese 581c]

Just like an addiction of some sort, the first part of being on the road to recovery is recognising you have a problem and doing something about it.

I really need to do something about my standby issues, I've denied it for long enough and It must be costing me a fortune and no doubt its not very green either.

I'll explain...

Downstairs I have so many electronics that I need a whole host of plug sockets. For my downstairs setup I need 10 plugs which are all connected to extensions. Thats a mix of tv, home cinema, lamps, phone, consoles etc. These always get set to standby, every day and never turned completely off. I need to do something about it.

In this room, I have lots of computer equipment, tv's, consoles, lamp, speakers etc etc. I need 12 plugs and they are all connected to extensions. They are mostly left on overnight too, and some go to standby and 1 or 2 turned off. I reaaaaaly need to do something about it.

In the main bedroom, there's tv, dvd, blu-ray etc. I need 5 plugs in there. They get set to standby and never turned off completely.

So basically what I'm looking for help with is how to get around 27/28 plugs turned off when I'm not using them.

I've seen these plug devices that you can buy so that when you plug up your equipment to them it cuts the power to them completely. I can't remember what they are called but they seem to sound good, the only thing is I'm not sure if they are rated to accept 10 plugs downstairs, 12 plugs upstairs and 5 in the main room being plugged into each of them. I need help with this and what options I have.

Or does anyone else have any thoughts on what could help me ? The main thing that we need to save is sky hd downstairs, we need that on as we record a lot of programs when we are both out working.

Help

[Lemon_Sherbert]

There are power extentions out there that have sensors in so that when you power off a device in one of the ports it turns the power off to the rest of the ports (useful for something like a pc with printer, monitor, etc on the rest of the ports.

Personally speaking I tend to have all my stuff that stays on (phone, router, freeview box etc) on a extension, and the stuff thats only on when you need it (TV, consoles, etc) on another one, then power that off at the wall, but thats cos its easy for me to get to the switch.

Also pick up a power meter from ebay or somewhere, tells you how much juice you are using per device, and if you add your electric costs to it will tell you how much its costing you to run, its kinda scary when see how much juice is used by things that you think are off (not just in stand by sometimes)

dont forget that its not really the amount of plugs that are in but the power draw at one time, I have 3 consoles, an amp, and a tv on 1 extension, but not everything is on at once so it never gets to 13amps.

[whysoserious]

If you need your pc to be on 24/7 look up S3 standby.

All the power-saving features of standby but allows all your network ports to still operate.

just my 2pence

[John7]

Try not to get too brainwashed by the Green Brigade about this.

Most modern devices consume much less than 1 watt when in standby.

For the sake of argument, let's assume you have 20 devices consuming 1 watt each. That's a total of 20 Watts and that will take 50 hours to consume 1kW Hour.

There are 8760 hours in 1 year and if your 20 devices are on standby all day, every day that works out at 8760/50 = 175 kWh

Assuming a kWh rate of £0.14 per kWh, gives a total cost per year of £24.53

In reality, your actual consumption will probably be much lower - you can buy a cheap power consumption meter from Maplins to check individual items.

Is it worth spending ££££ on remote switches etc when you are only looking at saving £10-20 per year?

By the way, I recently went through a similar excersise.

I found that my Blu-Ray player (PS3) was consuming around 200 Watts whether playing games or just watching a Disc. I have now invested in a dedicated Blu-Ray player (Sony S550) and this only conumes about 40 Watts, so a fair saving has been achieved there!

[RMCF]

Perhaps you want to buy one of these thingees and see for yourself?

Lidl: Energy Monitor - £6.84 - HotUKDeals Forum

[johntheexpat]

I agree with the above, in that you need to know the 'size' of the problem before throwing money at it.

[johntheexpat]

Originally Posted by John7

I found that my Blu-Ray player (PS3) was consuming around 200 Watts whether playing games or just watching a Disc.

200W strewth.!

[cas398]

Originally Posted by RMCF

Perhaps you want to buy one of these thingees and see for yourself?

Lidl: Energy Monitor - £6.84 - HotUKDeals Forum

Cheers. I have been looking for one of these on the cheap and the girlfriends works near Lidl.


Edit - None left

Two stores checked.

[Gliese 581c]

I've still not done anything about this. I think I'll invest in a power meter just to see exactly how much is being used when everything is on standby.

[namuk]

Plaint some trees and bushes. this helps a Tad ..

[Phil57]

Originally Posted by cas398

Cheers. I have been looking for one of these on the cheap and the girlfriends works near Lidl.


Edit - None left

Two stores checked.

Try Maplins.
Link:
Plug-in Electricity Cost and Usage Calculator > Maplin
or
Plug-In Mains Power and Energy Monitor > Maplin

[Sonic67]

Stand by for some home truths about power consumption | Technology | The Guardian

[Gliese 581c]

Originally Posted by Sonic67

Stand by for some home truths about power consumption | Technology | The Guardian

Interesting ...

[robh2002]

Originally Posted by Gliese 581c

Interesting ...

What's interesting is how in the hell that chap manages to use 16kWh / day with everything switched off!

He has one very serious problem.

My family (with a 1 year old and so the house occupied 24/7) uses just 5 kWh/day and only managed to use 17kWh on Xmas day with electric cooking and 13 for dinner!

For me leaving things on standby all the time would add about 1kWh / day or 20%!!!! Clearly for this chap another kWh/day here or there makes far less difference.

[Rorifett]

I think the 16kWH/day was if he ran a bath, had a shower, did his washing etc all on that one day, realistically though without having a bath, tumble drying clothes and a couple of other non-daily things he'd save about 10

[robh2002]

...let's hope so...!