ᐅ Standby Shutdown – Useful or Pointless?

Alex85 schrieb:
A TV that stays on standby power all year round consumes about one euro worth of electricity. Topic closed.

When you add up all devices, quite a bit remains.
1 watt continuous power consumption equals 8.7 kWh of electricity per year, which at around 25°C (77°F) already costs about 2 euros. Many devices, especially those with power adapters, easily use 1 watt or more (particularly older devices or those that can be woken up via LAN often consume 5 watts or higher). If you ignore this, the total can easily add up to 50-100 euros or more per year.
Saving money and electricity starts with the details. If you overlook this, it’s no surprise when you use 6000 kWh of electricity per year while others manage with 3000 kWh.
The simplest test is to turn off all non-essential appliances in summer (such as waiting until the refrigerator is off, turning off the radio, possibly the ventilation system, and assuming the lights are off) and then record the power consumption after about 10 minutes, especially if you do not have a digital meter that can display as low as around 35 watts. Then calculate how much this costs per year (see above).

Much more important: if you always completely cut the TV off from the power supply using the remote control, the hardware might eventually get damaged. A service technician once told me this after my second TV broke down. Since then, it has stayed on standby – as I mentioned, that costs less than 2€/year.

Ah, so a device is supposed to be woken up via LAN, which requires more power and is therefore turned off with a power strip? Sounds reasonable 🙂

If your meter shows 6000 kWh instead of 3000, those small savings from standby power won’t make much difference.

By the way, 1 W has been the maximum limit for new devices for several years now. The bigger issue is the 20-year-old Miele washing machine, but that’s quality and supposed to be like that.

Therefore, I disagree that saving electricity doesn’t start with small details. Spending dozens of euros on power strips and smart plugs is not cost-effective. Also, convenience has some value.
Just compare the cost of hair drying or vacuuming for 30 seconds versus the standby power that could be saved (no, I haven’t calculated this now, but it should be about right).

A hardware component will eventually fail anyway. I have a TV that I have always completely disconnected from the power supply for 6 years, and now it is stored in the basement and still works. Some devices tend to break down more quickly when they are used continuously. It also depends on the overall cost. In my living room, I have a switch that disconnects all multimedia devices from the power supply, except for the receiver for recording/network availability. This definitely saves more than 2 euros per year.

Alex85 schrieb:
Ah, a device is supposed to be woken up via LAN, therefore it needs more power and is turned off via a power strip? Sounds reasonable 🙂

You’re not reading correctly. The device is not supposed to be woken up via LAN, but it could be—that’s a big difference—because almost all newer LAN-enabled devices could do that (even if it’s not needed). Hence, a higher standby power consumption.

If your meter shows 6000 kWh instead of 3000, standby power peanuts won’t help you.

But that could still mean 300–500 kWh less. Overall, when it comes to electricity, it’s all peanuts. But even a bucket full of peanuts can be eaten for quite a while.

By the way, 1 W is the maximum limit for new devices and has been for several years now. The real issue is the 20-year-old Miele washing machine, but that’s quality and has to be that way.

The 1 W figure alone isn’t entirely correct; the regulation is much more complex and includes exceptions (e.g., devices displaying operating status, other features that allow switching on). Still, many older devices remain in use in many areas.

On the other hand, other risks are not considered, such as (though rare) fires or protection against lightning strikes (more common) when devices are disconnected from the power supply. Even if fires are rare now, if 1 million households disconnect their devices from the mains, that already means a few fewer fires.

I can read, you just can’t write. Read your paragraph above again; everything is stated there in one breath.

So you mean to save 300 kWh of standby power? Sorry, you really need to show your calculations because honestly, that’s completely unrealistic. That will never be true.