If your home is like ours, there’s endless devices that need to be recharged: phone, a laptop or two, kids toys (whatever happened to Mastermind and Othello?) – as well as things that generally get left plugged in even when they’re not in use.
Back in the day, the advice from the Fire Brigade was to unplug things before turning in for the night – it reduced the chance of a fire [it still is! Ed.] These days, we think the advice should be upgraded to ‘If you’re not using it, flick the switch off at the socket‘. Unfortunately, most digitally-controlled things these don’t come with a physical on/off switch: if they have a power button, all it usually does is send a signal to the main ‘bit’ to tell it to wake up – in other words, most devices these days need power just to know when they should be powered!
- Smart TV: 2W
- Phone charger: 1-2W each
- Laptop or computer in standby: 1-5W+ each
- Printer: 2W
- Microwave (with a clock/display): 2W
In a typical home with a few phone chargers and a laptop or two, you could well be spending £50 a year just by leaving things in ‘standby’. Turn them off at the wall and they use zero power.
If you have a WiFi / Internet router box then it’s probably using 5-10W. While it’s a pain to turn this one off every day, definitely make sure it’s off when you go away on holiday unless your heating system needs it: a WiFi left switched on when there’s nothing to use it is a real waste and a security issue.
On a related note, when the time comes to replace things like the TV (which, even we admit, we’re not going to reach behind and switch off at the wall every day), have a look at it’s ‘standby power’ consumption. If you can’t decide between two you like the look of, do your pocket a favour and pick the one that has the lowest standby usage.