Standby Plug for TV ?

[c128]

My TV uses 300-400 watts when on (depending on screen brightness, colours displayed etc...) and less than 1watt when off, I've yet to find any devices that use an appreciable amount of energy in standby mode.

I'd be interested in this too... Not that I'm saying it's not a worthy activity to avoid wasting any electricity, from both an environmental and money saving point of view, but some of the figures that seem to be bandied about with regard to stand-by consumption do not even closely match anything that I own with a stand-by mode. In fact, I wonder how much stand-by power most reasonably recent devices consume.

I think my most "greedy" stand-by item is my home theatre PC, which uses the "typical for a PC" 6W when in S3. Most of my other stuff is around the same, or much less.

 

[big-all]

the figures i quoted are readings i took with a digital plug in flow meter

they are not the actual reading but i belive they are near enough
i only go for old tecnoligy[whats cheap ] so wouldnt surprize me if modern stuff is more efficiant indeed the jvc the most modern tape recorder i have says 0 on standby so i put it down as 2or3w to allow for the fact that some power must be used

and the tecnoligy that was around 38% on standby it probably using transformers but definatly old

 

[Adam_151]

My TV uses 300-400 watts when on (depending on screen brightness, colours displayed etc...) and less than 1watt when off, I've yet to find any devices that use an appreciable amount of energy in standby mode.

I'm not sure if its intentional spin or not, but everyone immediatly looks at it that way round, but i'm pretty sure thats not what is truely meant.

You almost said it youself... Energy, measured of course in Kwh, not kw, if you add up the energy used by the tv all the hours its in standby and compare it to that used in all the hours its on you'll get some different numbers, if you then want to exgagerate that, as those behind the claims must cleary have done, then assume the tv is the set in the spare room, used only occasionly, and then the numbers begin to look plausable

 

[tlps]

Ok, so each of you who don't turn your tv off at the mains your each using (for arguements sake) 1 - 2w power each. Ok 5 people here (i haven't counted so don't quote me), are each using 1-2w so now we're up to 5-10w.

Imagine if 80% of the countries 24 million households are leaving all that burning - no wonder electricty companies are laughing all the way to the bank!!!!

24 million x 0.8 = 19.2 x2w = 38 million watts of power used to power little red LEDs all over the country. - Based on one tv per household - many people have more. No all people have LCD / Plasma tv lots still have CRT. Not even taking into account businesses who leave desktop displays fully on, not even turning them off - and they don't need to walk across the room to do it.

Personally I don't just switch off but also unplug my TV and other equipment at the wall over night. I have a HDD recorder which takes signals from the cable box when it needs to record and the cable box gets it date and time from the broadcast signal.

Also if I get a lightning strike (unlikely but stranger things have happened) I'm not about to blow up my TV and computer. I have had my computer for 5 years and never had to replace the internal battery.

 

[mattylad]

I have had my computer for 5 years and never had to replace the internal battery.

Which one? are you talking laptop type battery or the CR2032 CMOS backup one?

Because the CR2032 will be used even more when the power is off and its non re chargeable.

 

[tlps]

The backup. I'm sure its have to be better than leaving it plugged into the mains, just to keep the clock correct.

 

[radioredcat]

Karl (inventor of the standby plug)

My TV uses 300-400 watts when on (depending on screen brightness, colours displayed etc...) and less than 1watt when off, I've yet to find any devices that use an appreciable amount of energy in standby mode.


Cheers
-Dan

Toasty,Are you sure your tv consumes 300-400 watts,I remember our first colour tv telefunken 26" we bought in 1973 and that consumed 350w.
In 1982 we bought a grundig 26" and it consumed 60w quite a difference but if a plasma/lcd consumes so much power they can keep them.

Also the subject of power saving i drove past a house tonight that had a huge father christmas on the side and it was lit up with a 500w floodlamp.


andy

 

[electronicsuk]

Ok, so each of you who don't turn your tv off at the mains your each using (for arguements sake) 1 - 2w power each. Ok 5 people here (i haven't counted so don't quote me), are each using 1-2w so now we're up to 5-10w.

Imagine if 80% of the countries 24 million households are leaving all that burning - no wonder electricty companies are laughing all the way to the bank!!!!

24 million x 0.8 = 19.2 x2w = 38 million watts of power used to power little red LEDs all over the country. - Based on one tv per household - many people have more.

I'm all for saving the planet, but I'd much sooner pay a couple of quid extra a year rather than have to inconvenience of turning everything off at the socket when I'm not using it.

Admittedly, 38MW is a lot of power, but despite all the advertising drives by the government we know that there will always be people like me who leave their equipment on standby. Would it not be better to spend the money wasted on advertising in other areas, such as construction of renewable energy sources, or, even better, some new nuclear plants?

 

[Kes]

I seem to remember when these plugs were touted on Dragons' Den that the device had some sort of electrical storage device (capacitor? I'm no expert) which was charged when the TV was on and then powered the TV in standby mode when it was off. Not only do you not get anything for free, but that seemed to use more power than just leaving the TV on standby.

I thnk that the reason why people are rather dismissive of reducing standby energy is that they've passed through, or over, a city at night, more or less in daylight conditions. Reducing standby energy seems like widdling in the rain.

 

[timtheenchanter]

from what i have seen, most of these devices dont switch off the "master" socket but rather detect the standby of the main appliance ie TV or PC base unit, and the power down all the rest of it, ie monitors, printers, dvd players etc.

personally the only bit of my entertainment system to stay on standby is the sky box, the rest gets turned off at the (accessible) socket the PC also gets fully powered down at night, unless it dong somthing like rendering video etc that takes an age