Do You Leave Your Tv On Standby?

[Frank Hovis]

I don't know what you mean - if you mean switching circuits off at the consumer unit then you are correct there will be no EMF from there onwards

If you mean circuits are still switched on it, does not matter if anything is plugged in there is still EMF. It's AC so 'flowing' 50 times a second.

I stuck with Thomas Edison's DC!

I was thinking that until you completed the circuit by actually using something you had an incomplete circuit and so nothing is actually flowing through it.

So it flows back and forth along the main circuit continually but I have a U shaped branch off it that doesn't get the flow until I complete it by connecting something into it.

[chronyx]

There is no current usage but you still have an AC induced EMF - otherwise my volt stick would not work and I'd have to get the meter out to test cables

Clear as mud?

[snowflux]

I stuck with Thomas Edison's DC!

I was thinking that until you completed the circuit by actually using something you had an incomplete circuit and so nothing is actually flowing through it.

So it flows back and forth along the main circuit continually but I have a U shaped branch off it that doesn't get the flow until I complete it by connecting something into it.

The voltage detector works on the principle of capacitive coupling. It detects the electical field that varies 50 times a second around the AC mains circuit by completing a capacitive circuit to earth. If you are close to an alternating voltage source, then the electrons in your body are being pushed backwards and forwards by the resulting electric field.

[chronyx]

What he said

I think it's a load of old woo anyway. The volt stick has to be within a centimetre to work and that's designed to receive EMF!

[SNACR]

Yeah I don't care about it either. The energy cartel, just like the landowners and HMRC have their hooks in me far deeper than my own dreadful waste. Maybe they could express my energy waste in terms of African Babies Dead per Hour of Energy lost.

Because I'm the problem: me in my tiny little shthouse, doing no harm to anyone. I'm the problem.

I have to say one that really gets up my nose is M&S food. Apparently when I've loaded up with 3 for 2 chocolate biscuits in giant plastic pots, grapes in an enormous clear plastic box and a free plastic disposable spork to go with my plastic tub of pasta salad adding another few grammes of polythene to carry it all home in is murdering the planet and I must make a token payment to atone for my sins.

Lack of perspective seems to be a virulent and contagious mental disease in the 21st century.

[Bloo Loo]

I leave my bank account on standby ready to receive any energy debits day or night.

indeed, and mines usually red as well.

[MrPin]

The voltage detector works on the principle of capacitive coupling. It detects the electical field that varies 50 times a second around the AC mains circuit by completing a capacitive circuit to earth. If you are close to an alternating voltage source, then the electrons in your body are being pushed backwards and forwards by the resulting electric field.

I have one of those, but when I forget it, I just use my tongue!

[happy_renting]

There is no current usage but you still have an AC induced EMF - otherwise my volt stick would not work and I'd have to get the meter out to test cables

Clear as mud?

In the absence of a flowing current, there is still an electrostatic charge. Actually, this charge will reverse and reverse back again 50 times a second. A small number of electrons will flow back and forth into the grid as an electric charge.

I doubt electrons are harmful, as every atom in my body has some.

[happy_renting]

I have one of those, but when I forget it, I just use my tongue!

I have heard that you also detect women that way!

[Bloo Loo]

I have heard that you also detect women that way!

indeed, he is a cunning linguist

[MrPin]

I have heard that you also detect women that way!

I don't think most women would like to be probed with a multimeter! Unless I wear a white coat, and then it's OK!

[MrPin]

indeed, he is a cunning linguist

When I was born, the doctor said I had a "short tongue"! I obviously need a lady with a prominent "button"!

[Bossybabe]

Can I interest you in some radium toothpaste?

It gives your teeth that healthy glow!

Thanks. I already use that. Great for polishing silver, too.

[davidg]

The worst performer is £21.92 per year? Erm, I don't care.

The list must be wrong in grouping CRT and LCD TVs together? I thought CRTs were the worst of the worst for standby power consumption.

The story about TVs was largely ****** when it came out. They have a little infra-red receiver that draws microwatts, this controls a relay that cuts the power to the rest of the circuitry. What hangs off the relay doesn't matter, it could be a 3 bar electric fire but once the power is cut by the relay it draws nothing. The only thing consuming power is the infra-red controller.

Now there were one or two TV sets way-back when that didn't really turn off on standby they just cut power to the screen and it was these that got the greens hot under the collar.

[corevalue]

I stuck with Thomas Edison's DC!

I was thinking that until you completed the circuit by actually using something you had an incomplete circuit and so nothing is actually flowing through it.

So it flows back and forth along the main circuit continually but I have a U shaped branch off it that doesn't get the flow until I complete it by connecting something into it.

Wires energised, no current == electrostatic field.

Wires energised, current flowing == electrostatic field + magnetic field.

The difference in consumption of the various devices on standby depends only on the design of the power supply. It never used to be a consideration in designer's minds to optimise performance for the standby condition, they were more concerned about cost and preventing the damn thing catching fire when at maximum load.

[corevalue]

The story about TVs was largely ****** when it came out. They have a little infra-red receiver that draws microwatts, this controls a relay that cuts the power to the rest of the circuitry. What hangs off the relay doesn't matter, it could be a 3 bar electric fire but once the power is cut by the relay it draws nothing. The only thing consuming power is the infra-red controller.

Now there were one or two TV sets way-back when that didn't really turn off on standby they just cut power to the screen and it was these that got the greens hot under the collar.

Wrong. The IR receiver draws microwatts, unfortunately, the power supply energising it is the culprit.

[Bruce Banner]

Wrong. The IR receiver draws microwatts, unfortunately, the power supply energising it is the culprit.

Quadrature current?

[davidg]

Wrong. The IR receiver draws microwatts, unfortunately, the power supply energising it is the culprit.

What power supply energising scottie? You've got a tiny transfo for the IR receiver, they are not powering it of the main transformer for the circuit board. Dohhhhh!

[Riedquat]

I generally don't leave stuff on standby at all, what's the point? Well, apart from all the stuff that you can't actually turn off properly without unplugging, like my computer (why?) I don't count the router, it's designed to be left on all the time anyway.

[Scunnered]

The story about TVs was largely ****** when it came out. They have a little infra-red receiver that draws microwatts, this controls a relay that cuts the power to the rest of the circuitry. What hangs off the relay doesn't matter, it could be a 3 bar electric fire but once the power is cut by the relay it draws nothing. The only thing consuming power is the infra-red controller.

Now there were one or two TV sets way-back when that didn't really turn off on standby they just cut power to the screen and it was these that got the greens hot under the collar.

I thought that part of the problem was transformers that still have current flowing through them when your TV (or whatever) is on standby. If you've got electrons sloshing back and forth through a big coil of wire and generating a magentic field that expands and collapses 50 (100?) times a second then some of the energy's going to be lost as heat.

[davidg]

I thought that part of the problem was transformers that still have current flowing through them when your TV (or whatever) is on standby. If you've got electrons sloshing back and forth through a big coil of wire and generating a magentic field that expands and collapses 50 (100?) times a second then some of the energy's going to be lost as heat.

as explained above, you have an IR circuit powered either by a battery or a small transformer, that controls some kind of relay switch which cuts the power to the rest of the tv. Job done. You don't leave the main transformer powered. The transformer for an IR circuit can be tiny and draw fractions of a watt.

When the story about standby came out I checked my old Sony CRT tv and it was drawing less than a watt on standby.

[Rare Bear]

The worst performer is £21.92 per year? Erm, I don't care.

The list must be wrong in grouping CRT and LCD TVs together? I thought CRTs were the worst of the worst for standby power consumption.

I think that some of the old CRTs kept the tube gun hot when in stand bye, hence all the claims of high power usage in stand bye for all sorts of devices.

[fluffy666]

as explained above, you have an IR circuit powered either by a battery or a small transformer, that controls some kind of relay switch which cuts the power to the rest of the tv. Job done. You don't leave the main transformer powered. The transformer for an IR circuit can be tiny and draw fractions of a watt.

When the story about standby came out I checked my old Sony CRT tv and it was drawing less than a watt on standby.

Yes, it depends entirely on the appliance, these lists are just silly.

I have a lot of gadgets on standby, but the total house standby load is around 70W (including things like routers, fridges, freezers, bedside clocks, fish water pump et al that can't be turned off without considerable inconvenience).

So, perhaps 1.7kWh / day or £75/year. Much of which is basically space heating outside of summer, and also much of which is basically unavoidable.

I dislike this sort of 'green' thinking, simply because it often involves nagging people to do inconvenient things that barely register in the grand scheme of things.

(Having said this, it is worth checking - I found that I have an old VCR that was drawing about 50W on standby (It was surprisingly warm to the touch). That sort of thing is worth looking out for.

[davidg]

I think that some of the old CRTs kept the tube gun hot when in stand bye, hence all the claims of high power usage in stand bye for all sorts of devices.

No doubt some did but it was not universal. There are probably some crap-jack chinese Led screens that draw 100 w on standby too and it is not a hard engineering problem to solve.

[corevalue]

What power supply energising scottie? You've got a tiny transfo for the IR receiver, they are not powering it of the main transformer for the circuit board. Dohhhhh!

What power supply energising scottie? You've got a tiny transfo for the IR receiver, they are not powering it of the main transformer for the circuit board. Dohhhhh!

That's what they often do now. In the past, it was an auxiliary output of the power supply.

I measured a PC at no less than 37 Watts on standby once.