Turn off or Satndby ?

[12noon]

What do you do with your TV and other electrical items such as laptops and video recorders when you go to bed ?

Do you put them on standby or just turn them off or do you go round unplugging everything ?
 

[SensoVision]

I never turn off PC since it's recording various TV shows which I watch in small window during work, only monitor goes to standby when I'm away. Regarding TV we always put it into stand by mode, but I recently become aware that it actually consume not nice amount of power during standby(previously I thought that it's very low).
So now I'm try to educate myself and family members to turn off devices instead of putting them into standby.

We unplug devices only during storm or when leave home for a day or more.

[12noon]

I put the TV, DVD recorder and cable tv box on standby at night because the cable box gets software updates throughout the night and i would miss the updates if i turned off. Plus unplugging would mean that i would have to re-set the clocks on all the items.
 
My PC/laptop gets turned off at night.

BTW i put all the above on standby and try to save on electric by using energy saving light bulbs.
 
I don't think the little bit of electric that i could save could help the planet much anyway.

[SensoVision]

I put the TV, DVD recorder and cable tv box on standby at night because the cable box gets software updates throughout the night and i would miss the updates if i turned off.

it's cool that you can get software updates through cable, I guess that here such feature wouldn't be available for a long time.

Plus unplugging would mean that i would have to re-set the clocks on all the items.

yeah that's probably most of annoying things in electronic, I had old VCR made by Sharp which could save time about 12 hours or bit more(it was very handy during times we had frequent power blackouts), why other electronic couldn't implement this feature?

BTW i put all the above on standby and try to save on electric by using energy saving light bulbs.

we're also use light saving bulbs where it's possible for more than year, and it's really save some kilowatts. Regarding electronic we're trying to unplug all chargers from mobiles when they are not necessary and turn off electronic instead of using standby but it's still happen yet.

For everyone interested about how much your devices consume during standby period, check out manual you could find out that some devices consume amount of power as a power saving lightbulb or more...

Here is also site about standby power: http://standby.lbl.gov

I don't think the little bit of electric that i could save could help the planet much anyway.

imagine how many electronic devices out there... if everyone would start pay attention how they turn off devices it would considerably lower amount of consumed power. But even if they don't you'll be rewarded by smaller electricity bill

[Queen Bee]

When it comes to my computer, I rarely turn it off or leave it on standby. I leave it running because I'm either downloading programs and/or listening to music when I'm trying to sleep.

[SensoVision]

I leave it running because I'm either downloading programs and/or listening to music when I'm trying to sleep.

so I'm not the only one who listen to the music when trying to sleep In the past when I go to bed a bit earlier I've always turn on the radio or just play some list of mp3, this make time before I fell sleep isn't so boring. Currently I'm usually go to bed tired enough to fall asleep after several minutes so rarely use music on.

Rachel, what about other devices in your home or the only one you're using is PC?

[donecweb]

I also like to listen to the music when trying to go to sleep.

[Queen Bee]

Rachel, what about other devices in your home or the only one you're using is PC?

Well...

I have a keyboard and electronic drums. I'm usually pretty good about turning off my keyboard, but the drums... it's so inconvenient. I have to get down on my knees and reach all the way in the back just to turn the dumb thing off.

[Andy]

It seems like a lot of people are struggling to get to sleep at night?

[SensoVision]

It seems like a lot of people are struggling to get to sleep at night?

Interesting questions, Andy. This give me idea to start another thread as it could be interesting to hear when people are actually sleeping. Here it goes.

[12noon]

I've just been told that putting my TV on standby doesn't save any electric at all. My cable box might even use more electric on standby because of the big standby lights on the front and the fact that it is still doing as much work as it does when it's turned fully on.
 
BTW i've just set my cable box to record all sorts of stuff on TV over the Christmas period.

[Andy]

A simple test is to put your hand on the top of the box. If it's hot to the touch, then it's eating power, if it is at near room temperature then it is working efficiently and can be left on.

I've just been told that putting my TV on standby doesn't save any electric at all.

I used to design TV power supplies so I think I know a thing or two about this. Putting your TV into standby will certainly consume much less power than when it is on. Just compare the heat it produces between on and standby states. I think what people mean is that leaving your TV in standby rather than unplugged does consume some power so if you go on holiday and leave it like this then you could be wasting significant energy. But, even then it would be nothing much compared to say boiling a kettle full of water.

[SensoVision]

Andy, while we're on topic, I've thought to answer you, what your opinion about electricity usage monitors like Kill-a-Watt Electricity Usage Monitor? I was going to get myself something like this to find out how many power are consumed by particular equipment and determine better scheme of using them to save on costs. So I wonder if you know about it's accuracy, are such devices would work at least for reference or not?

[Andy]

I had a quick look at the link to the Kill-a-Watt product. My first impression is that it should probably work as claimed at the high power levels.

But for low power standby measurements, the accuracy is likely to reduce because the current sensor will be optimized for up to 15 amps. For low current in the milliamp range there needs to be another plug like you get with Electronics Multimeters that connect to a higher resistance current measuring input with a fuse to protect it from overloads.

So you could buy a cheap DVM (Digital Volt Meter) with an AC current input from a hardware store and rig up your own measuring instrument. But you have to be careful to insulate it against electrical shock.

But, the real power consumption is not volts x amps since there is a phase shift so the Kill-A-Watt product may be more accurate overall since it is likely to have a chip that calculates the power based on the sampled waveforms of the current and voltage with time e.g. 100 samples per mains cycle, even though the current reading may not be very accurate.

Sorry I didn't give a simple clear-cut answer 

Also, it is difficult to measure the power consumption of a switched-mode power supply in a tick-over state since the power is gulped in narrow bursts with a duty factor that can be a big ratio. So my suggestion of feeling for heat is the best idea I think. Actually, I know this is right since no matter how complex a power profile is, the power dissipated in a resistor will produce heat and the temperature rise is easy to measure accurately. But if you use meters that try and follow the real time modulation of the power envelope then it is difficult to obtain accuracy when you have short pulses.

Another free way to measure power is to observe your electricity meter that has a spinning disc. You can time how long it takes to do say 10 revolutions with an appliance on or off. Then with some maths you can calculate the power consumption. This should be a calibrated instrument that your power company kindly provided for free. 

[SensoVision]

But for low power standby measurements, the accuracy is likely to reduce because the current sensor will be optimized for up to 15 amps. For low current in the milliamp range there needs to be another plug like you get with Electronics Multimeters that connect to a higher resistance current measuring input with a fuse to protect it from overloads.

I see, but using it for counting average amount of how much particular appliance consume per month would also be interesting for me.

So you could buy a cheap DVM (Digital Volt Meter) with an AC current input from a hardware store and rig up your own measuring instrument. But you have to be careful to insulate it against electrical shock.

I had DVM but in this case I was looking for ready made solution as I stop assembling own electrical appliances about 12 years ago(in past I've assembled radios and other not very complicated gadgets) and from that time I've loose a lot of knowledge, so it would take some time to catch up with things.

Sorry I didn't give a simple clear-cut answer

Thanks for explanation, you've made things much more clear to me actually! I'm going to buy some power usage monitor some day in future.

Another free way to measure power is to observe your electricity meter that has a spinning disc. You can time how long it takes to do say 10 revolutions with an appliance on or off. Then with some maths you can calculate the power consumption. This should be a calibrated instrument that your power company kindly provided for free.

I knew about this and actually even try to measure power consumption this way few years ago but it soon become boring and family members keep complaining that can't use electricity and that food in fridge would warm and start to stink soon