leaving tv and sky box on standby

leaving tv and sky box on standby

Author
Discussion

pano amo

Original Poster:

814 posts

236 months

Monday 12th January 2009
quotequote all
This is an on-going 'difference of opinion' with me and the missus. I leave the two devices on standby when I go to bed while she insists we power them down.
The key question is: how much electricty in monetary terms are these units gobbling up while we leave them in this state? When my sky box failed last year, the sky engineer who came to fix it said they recommend their boxes are not powered down but left on standby. Are we talking just a few pence an hour?

BigBazza

2,135 posts

247 months

Monday 12th January 2009
quotequote all
Roughly 2 or 3p an hour max.

Plotloss

67,280 posts

270 months

Monday 12th January 2009
quotequote all
Sky boxes use the same amount of electricity on standby that they do when they're on. What the engineer told you however is correct, the less times the HD spins up from cold, the lower the chance of issue.

Televisions use next to f*** all when on standby, often under 1 watt if its a fairly modern flat screen set.

dan1981

17,382 posts

199 months

Monday 12th January 2009
quotequote all
1 or 2 watts, 2 or 3 pence.

Pah - its all academical..... WHAT ABOUT THE KITTENS!!!????? and the CHILDREN??????

MrV

2,748 posts

228 months

Monday 12th January 2009
quotequote all
Next to nothing savings wise,sky box's now even go into standby mode all by themselves in the early hours of the morning even if you don't turn them off.

HRG

72,857 posts

239 months

Monday 12th January 2009
quotequote all
Pence... And you'll never get a consensus I'm afraid, some people prefer fewer running hours while some prefer to avoid thermal and electrical shock.

Having had numerous P-N junctions breaking down in power supplies when I used to relocate X-25 PADs I always prefer to keep things running. In the end we figured out that we could stop these devices dying during refits if we left them powered up doing nothing somewhere for the duration.


BigBazza

2,135 posts

247 months

Monday 12th January 2009
quotequote all
Doesn't seem a lot and i'm anything BUT an eco warrior - add it up over a year, say its on standy 20hrs a day while you are asleep/at work and at 2p/h its £145 a year.

All adds up!

bazking69

8,620 posts

190 months

Monday 12th January 2009
quotequote all
Experience tells me that constant turning on and off of the Sky box will lead to premature failure, and the charade that follows trying to get it sorted with Sky...
Hence mine is always on standby 24-7. Haven't had a problem with my Sky+ box in nearly 4 years.
I'm not going to split hairs over pennies...

jmorgan

36,010 posts

284 months

Monday 12th January 2009
quotequote all
Having seen kit of various types catch fire over the years (not in the house though but close calls with some) I prefer to turn everything off. Not saying the stuff is unsafe, just that I sleep easier. Personal choice. No sky dish but the lot goes off.

BigBazza

2,135 posts

247 months

Monday 12th January 2009
quotequote all
Doesn't seem a lot and i'm anything BUT an eco warrior - add it up over a year, say its on standy 20hrs a day while you are asleep/at work and at 2p/h its £145 a year.

All adds up!

pano amo

Original Poster:

814 posts

236 months

Monday 12th January 2009
quotequote all
BigBazza said:
Doesn't seem a lot and i'm anything BUT an eco warrior - add it up over a year, say its on standy 20hrs a day while you are asleep/at work and at 2p/h its £145 a year.

All adds up!
eek

aciddrop616

1,981 posts

193 months

Monday 12th January 2009
quotequote all
im one for standby but also get the whole money saving aspect as if its just pence and hours then thats still a fair bit.

say its 2 pence an hour on standby, and you leave it on standby for say 6 hours, thats 12 pence in 1 day, x 7 thats 84p a week multiply that by 52 and you get £43.68 a year. so thats a full tank of petrol a year saved if you turn it off.

Thom

Mikey G

4,729 posts

240 months

Monday 12th January 2009
quotequote all
Leave my Sky + box on 24 hours a day. Turned the setting off that puts it into standby during the night, working shifts i can be up any hour of the day and i dont want some device telling me when it should be turned off.
Anyway whats the point in turning it off when its designed to record my favorite programs when i'm not there!

I wonder how many people turn their microwave off at the mains because surely that clock consumes a lot of power?...

Dirty Boy

14,697 posts

209 months

Monday 12th January 2009
quotequote all
I always turn the tvs off properly, but leave sky on permanently.

john_p

7,073 posts

250 months

Monday 12th January 2009
quotequote all
A Sky+ box uses 14W on standby, according to Google

So say the box is unused between midnight and 4PM = 16 hours

= 0.224 kWh per day

I'd say your TV is about 2W on standby

= 0.032 kWh per day

Electricity say 12p/kWh

= 3.1 pence per day to leave both devices in standby

Edited by john_p on Monday 12th January 11:34

deckster

9,630 posts

255 months

Monday 12th January 2009
quotequote all
aciddrop616 said:
im one for standby but also get the whole money saving aspect as if its just pence and hours then thats still a fair bit.

say its 2 pence an hour on standby, and you leave it on standby for say 6 hours, thats 12 pence in 1 day, x 7 thats 84p a week multiply that by 52 and you get £43.68 a year. so thats a full tank of petrol a year saved if you turn it off.
But that's only one half of the equation. You need to take into account the extra 365 power cyclings per year, and the difference that makes to the mean time between failure of all the affected components. If it takes say two years off the life of your £1000 screen then the power savings don't look so pretty any more...

davido140

9,614 posts

226 months

Monday 12th January 2009
quotequote all
BigBazza said:
Roughly 2 or 3p an hour max.
That much?

I've recently taken to turning everything off except sky+ (so it can record stuff!)

So thats Amp, Xbox, PS3, Wii, Active Sub, TV,

Even at a penny an hour each thats £36 per month (20 hours a day standby!!)

Golly.

Bee_Jay

2,599 posts

248 months

Monday 12th January 2009
quotequote all
john_p said:
A Sky+ box uses 14W on standby, according to Google

So say the box is unused between midnight at 4PM = 16 hours

= 0.224 kWh per day

I'd say your TV is about 2W on standby

= 0.032 kWh per day

Electricity say 12p/kWh

= 3.1 pence per day to leave in standby
So, about £10/year, not £145 !!!!

Worth it for me - I leave my Sky+ and LCD on standby for the sake of not having to replace them regularly due to power supply and component failure due to repeated power cycles...

Oakey

27,561 posts

216 months

Monday 12th January 2009
quotequote all
Mikey G said:
Leave my Sky + box on 24 hours a day. Turned the setting off that puts it into standby during the night, working shifts i can be up any hour of the day and i dont want some device telling me when it should be turned off.
Anyway whats the point in turning it off when its designed to record my favorite programs when i'm not there!

I wonder how many people turn their microwave off at the mains because surely that clock consumes a lot of power?...
Your Sky box will come out of standby to record your shows.

telecat

8,528 posts

241 months

Monday 12th January 2009
quotequote all
SKY + boxes have a Hard Drive fitted. Leave it on!!! Wear only occurs on powering up and down. I always leave my Freeview+ Box on as it records and updates overnight. As for the TV Yes you can shut them down. The parts aren't that affected. As people have said though the difference will be miniscule.