General Chat

The TV, DVD Player and Freeview Box are all turned off at the mains every night prior us going to bed. The video recorder has to be left in standby mode as battery backup wouldn't last all night.

My PC is only booted up when I need to use it ie usually for couple of hours each night. Printer etc only powered up when I use it

Cant see sense in leaving any elec equipment (cept' video recorder) powered up when not in use.

John has a good point. All computers should be connected via a distribution board which has a built in filter to remove spikes on the mains. It is not just during storms that these occur, then can happen at any time of the day, depending on how clean your supply is.

Whilst the risk is low, you can also get spikes via the telephone line, especially if you connection is overhead, rather than underground, to to be absolutely safe unplug any connections from the line socket.

Same applies to TV's unplug from the mains and aerial during thunderstorms,

Beware of leaving comp on during thunder -lightning. Get a 'spike' through your lines and your hard drive could be cleared..................

I dont know if its of any use as its slightly off track put I recently bought an 'Intelli panal' for the TV and they do them for PC's too.

Its like a large gang block or whatever you call them - the tv, surround sound, xbox, playstation, Amp, cable box etc are all plugged into it.

You configure it so when you switch the tv off (by the standby) it switches all the peripherals off as if turned off at the mains (inc tv) except anything you choose to remain in standby mode eg the dvd recorder as you want the timer to work.

It costs about £20.00 from Tescos and OH said in reality it will prob take me about two years to recoup the £20.00 spent but I like the Idea of it and it won an award for eco product of the year.

I think the ones that when your pc switches off and it does the same for your monitor and printers etc are about £10.00. Mind you they were on special offer I think they are usually more expensive.

As a general rule, settings on equipment such as DVD's, televisions etc will be retained if the power is removed. In some cases it may only be a few hours, unless the equipment remains plugged in, in which case it will continue to consume power, albeit at a lower rate.

The best thing to do is to check the instruction manual, assuming you have one.

Whilst undoubtedly, leaving equipment plugged in does use power, and it all adds up to a considerable amount across the entire country, but as a % of our total power consumption it is a tiny drop in the ocean.

A far better way to save power is to look at anything which generates heat and cut down on their usage wherever you can. For example Tumble Driers are by far the biggest consumers of electricity in the home so only use them when you have absolutely no alternative. Washers, dishwashers kettles and room heaters follow close behind. Make sure the cooker is turned off as soon as you have finished and don't turn the oven on too far in advance.

Also beware of claims made in the press or on TV as to how much you can save by plugging things out. BBC Breakfast did a thing last year and claimed that disconnecting your phone charger would save £25 a month.

Clearly this was completely wrong as this was half of what most people were paying in total at the time. A quick calculation confirmed that the true saving was more in the region of £2.50 a year, for that one item. Someone had forgotten to convert the watts to killowatts and they were out by a factor of 1000.

Computers can be left on 24/7 but obviously they will use power.

Even in standby mode the hard drive, power pack and processor fans are still running.

Depending on how you have set up the powers settings , to check your power settings right click on a blank space on your desktop, left click on Properties, left click on Screen Saver and you will see the Power Settings button. Here you can set the time periods for turning off your hard disk and monitor.

Carol
www.genealogyprinters.com

Not sure, but - being on a laptop - I have been told it's not good to leave it connected to the power adaptor all the time. Many years ago, the home computer we had was a leftover from my dad's work - the thing worked but the screen was cracked so we had a new monitor. But because it was left plugged in all the time there came a point where you couldn't disconnect it from the power pack because the battery had got so used to being connected to the mains that it wouldn't charge. So I try to charge mine up, then let the battery run down and only plug it in again when it gets to about 20% battery life or lower.

I've turned the TV off quite a lot at the socket and it's been OK afterwards.

I have been informed that you can leave your computer on 24/7 and it will not use great deal of electricity because it will go into standby mode. Is this correct.

Another myth, if i turn all the tv, ps2, digital box and dvd player of at the power switch will i have to reconfigure the channels etc.