Does Shutting Off Power Strips Actually Save Power?

Question

My boyfriend has gotten interested in saving power (for money and for the environment) and has taken to shutting off the power strips that the TV/Computer/etc... are hooked into every night. Evidently they use power even when they are off (is that true?). But a friend told me that you risk using more energy every time you turn them on than you save by turning them off. Is this true? What is the best method of actually saving energy?

Answer 1

It saves some, but not much. For example, your TV can turn on when you use the remote control to command it to turn on, but for the TV to recognize that signal from the remote it has to have a receiver always listening for the signal from the remote, and that takes a watt or two. You will NOT waste energy when you turn things back on. There may be a second or so of slightly increased power use at the moment you turn it back on, but that will easily be offset by the savings you get by leaving it off for even just a few minutes. The reason not to turn things on and off all the time is that it causes wear and tear on the electronics, causing them to fail sooner than they would otherwise. The same is true of fluorescent lights. You loose money buying replacement bulbs more often, but you don't waste electricity by turning off fluorescent lights often. And there is no damage to incandescent lights caused by turning them off and on, and since incandescent bulbs use more power than fluorescent lights, it is DEFINITELY good to turn them off whenever you don't need them.

You can save much more energy by setting your thermostat one degree higher in the summer so that your air conditioner runs less and one degree lower in the winter so your heater runs less. Heating and air conditioning are the biggest power hogs in your house.

Answer 2

different than for fluorescent lights, it extremely is going to just about consistently be a saving shutting issues off (no longer on standby). an argument may well be made for desktops in hibernation or standby the place it ought to take a shorter time to renew artwork than reload each and every thing. some equipment might take a time to heat as much as working temperature and to that end cost greater to maintain shutting down and restarting. An occasion is oil refineries the place it takes 3 days to effectively close down all and yet another 3 days to come back to widely used use. it extremely is going to likely be greater useful and greater cost-effective to run yet at a min cost for all time. little question persons can supply many greater examples of this manner of ingredient however the real answer is = ordinary shutting down often will keep potential.

Answer 3

yes it does. most of the stuff around your house uses energy just to sit on standby. turning off the bar stops this.