Week #24 Switch Off Your Devices

If you're looking for one simple thing you can do to save on your power bill, here it is: switch off at the socket. Take a look around your home and you'll probably realize you've got quite a few devices on standby mode. Leaving your appliances on standby mode means you're paying for phantom load or vampire power - simply for the convenience of a quick startup when you need to use the device.

The solution? Develop a few easy habits to switch off at the wall and start saving on energy costs today.

For example, just in the UK, seven out of ten households leave electrical items on standby, with 1/3 admitting to doing so all the time. 

Most common devices you can turn off:
1. TVs
2. Computers
3. Phone, tablets, and laptops on charge
4. Game consoles

Interesting facts:
By setting all University PC monitors to go to sleep after 10 minutes instead of 30, each year we could:
    • save more CO2 than is produced by a plane flying from London to Paris.
    • save enough energy to run all streetlights in Cambridge for four nights.
A PC monitor left on overnight can waste enough electricity to laser print over 500 pages. 

Leaving your photocopier on standby overnight:
    •   releases as much greenhouse gas over a year as driving from Cambridge to Paris and back again.
    •    wastes enough energy to make 30 cups of tea. (Source)