Before you switch off the lights tonight and your head hits the pillow it might be a good idea to take a wander around your home and see exactly what gadgets are sitting idly on standby. New research from British Gas suggests that many of us are wasting hundreds of pounds of electricity by not switching off gadgets at night.
The worst offenders for sucking power whilst on standby are TVs, set-top boxes, smart speakers and printers. Games consoles, such as the PS5 and Xbox Series X, are also pretty dreadful if you want to cut down your power bill. Even leaving a phone charger plugged into the walls with no phone attached costs £1.26 per year!
With energy prices soaring, now is a good time to make some simple changes and quickly turning off the power to devices around the home could help make significant savings. As most bill payers are aware, electricity rates have soared since the start of the month with some homes now paying around 50 percent more than at the start of the year.
Here’s how much devices are costing you by leaving them on standby
4K TV • £24.61 per year
Sky or Virgin box • £23.10 per year
Games console • £12.17 per year
Desktop PC • £11.12 per year
Printer • £3.81 per year
Phone charger • £1.26 per year
British Gas is urging customers to switch off the devices they are not using with expert Marc Robson telling the BBC that he recommends using extension leads or smart plugs to make it simple to hit the power button. “There are smart plugs you can buy which will let you check everything is turned off from your phone,” Robson said.
“At night, or when not in use, try switching off devices at the mains rather than switching to standby, as even the standby light on a television uses energy. Try not to overcharge your mobile phone and laptop unnecessarily.
“As soon as your device is charged, try and get into the habit of unplugging it. Not only will this save energy but it also prolongs battery life.
“A smart meter’s in-home display can help to identify how much energy is used at different times of the day, so you can see where energy is wasted.”
Along with turning off devices, there are some other tricks to try. For example, most TVs now feature Eco modes which dim the screen to help conserve power. Sky also includes a similar function on its Q box which places the device into a digital slumber during the night.
One gadget we don’t recommend turning off at night is your router as updates are often pushed out to these devices at night.
Constantly turning off these boxes can also make your Internet Service Provider think there is something wrong with your connection and this can lead to slower internet speeds.
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