On standby versus switch off?

Question

If it's so much more energy conscious to switch off our appliances rather than leave them on standby are we still manufacturing TV's etc with standby facilities ? What actually is the point of standby ?

Answer 1

I agree with pssthok.....
lobby the government to make the manufacturers change the spec and that way they will kill two birds with one stone......energy effiecieny AND exercise!!!
(And they'll pretend it was their idea all along!)

Answer 2

It comes down to keeping the remote control working at all times as has been mentioned already and so is a case of customer convenience / laziness.

On the power consumption front, it would appear the TV and video are both major power vapires when in standby mode. A friend recently confirmed this at his home with a power meter. Other items such as phone chargers and modems didn't register so much as a blip whether turned on or off. Could be his meter wasn't accurate enough but my view is that if you want to save some energy (and be a bit greener) remember to turn off the TV at the set and don't stress so much about the little stuff.

Answer 3

First of all, let's point out that this whole discussion is moot. Appliances on standby use so little power, that even if every person in the country stopped using standby, the saving in power usage would be completely insignificant compared to total power consumption.

Next, let's also point out another, very important, misconception...

Leaving an appliance on standby uses power, but getting up and actually pressing the off button means the appliance uses no power at all. Right?

Wrong!

The idea that if you get up and press the off button, your appliance won't use power is a *MYTH* (sorry about the capitals, but people need to realise this!)

Even if you press the off button, your appliance is still using power. All the settings are stored electronically in volatile memory - without power these settings are lost. If you turn off your telly, do you have to tune in all the channels again? No, they are stored electronically and this requires power.

But if we unplug the appliance we'll save power though. Right?

Wrong again!!!

Now, we have to get really complicated and talk about the fact that these settings are protected from temporary power loss (power cuts, etc.) by having capacitors that basically act like rechargeable batteries, so that if you do loose power for a short time, you don't lose all your settings. But remember, when power is restored, these "batteries" need to be recharged, so the appliance uses more power than usual to do this. So, even if you unplug your appliance, this "recharging of the batteries" will use extra power when you turn it back on again.

So, all in all, for the most part, this whole "save energy by turning things off instead of leaving them on standby" idea is, as I've said, a myth.

And let's not even get into the whole issue of: Most appliances fail when they are first turned on, so if we increase the frequency of "turn-ons" we'll increase failures, so more appliances will need to be replaced, so more will need to be built, and this will require more power,

We don't want to go there, do we?

Answer 4

Unfortunately, most appliances on standby use considerably more than a watt or two. Having checked my VCR in standby with a power meter I bought from Tchibo for about a tenner, I found it used 35watts. Turned on and playing a video it used 35 watts as well. My 21in. TV uses 80watts when I'm watching it, so my video in standby wastes almost half the power my TV needs to operate. I always switch stuff off properly to save both money and the environment.

Answer 5

Pure lazyness on the point of the user.

It's easier for them to hit the standby button on the remote instead of actually walking to the TV etc to actually switch off.

Manufacturers know that this happens so won't do away with the facility as it will be seen as a negative when people, especially couch potatoes, are looking for a new TV

Answer 6

It is so it can be turned on and off with the remote without having to switch it on at the tv itself.

Ideally they wouldnt be manufactured with such a function, but you know how lazy some people are - if one brand offered the standby function everyone would buy that brand and the others would lose business.

Essentially people want to be able to choose whether they enegy save themselves and not have it forced upon them,

Remember, global warming has not been scientifically proven beyond all doubt yet.

Answer 7

TV's that have "off" vs "standby" are mostly misleading. Older TV's did turn completely off, but to have a remote control for the TV, at least part of the circuitry needs to be powered up to run the remote control circuitry.

Turning electronic devices on and off also causes greater wear than leaving them powered up continuously. Stand-by is a state of "mostly off". It has different meanings for different equipment. Some VCR's, for example, set their clocks via signals present on certain TV channels whild "off". The power used when a device is on standby is quite negligible.... perhaps a watt or so.

Answer 8

Oddly enough, all I have on the TV I have is standby.
To turn it off I have to unplug it completely.

Answer 9

i am still not sure about the whole stanby issue. But we phone charges dont have an auto off function so priks like me leave them plugged in all day. perhaps you're right, if there was no stanby button i'd turn it off, i am too lazy otherwise.

if you want to be clever, carbon off set. turn the telly off and you can have conciensce free short haul flights

Answer 10

Thats simple to make you think that the manufacturer is giving you lots of options for your money.