Saving energy - not leaving electrical equipment on standby

by Ian Mortmer
(Crawley, Sussex, UK.)

A very large amount of electrical energy could be saved by not leaving things like TVs and video equipment on standby when not actually being used. Although leaving things on standby can be very convenient it is also a total waste of energy and money. It also substantially increases carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere all the time we carry using fossil fuels to generate electricity.

I feel that this situation needs to be addressed very quickly... For gods sake we are looking at the future of the whole planet and all life on it not just human beings!

For heavens sake everybody wake up!!!

Barry's Response - The average power drawn by a device in standby mode (aka phantom load, vampire power) is about 15 W. This is roughly equal to your average CFL (Compact fluorescent light bulb). If your household has even just a few of these things, the cost of wasted electrical energy can become significant.

At a dime per kilowatt-hour, a convenient estimate, a 15 W trickle wastes 15*1000*720 = 10.8 kW-h per month or $1.08 worth per month. Multiply that by the number of devices in your home and it can become something you would rather not just toss.

We shall have new regulations in various parts of the world requiring new devices to use less than one Watt while in stand-by. That's better.

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