Sneaky Appliances

Recent in-home studies show the average household has almost 70 plug-in appliances, many consuming power while performing no function most of the time. This standing by power is estimated to account for up to 10% of your home’s electricity consumption!

You might be surprised at the levels of energy your appliances are using just because they are plugged in. You may find this information in your appliance manuals.

An idle electrical appliance can be:

• In active standby mode, where it is not performing its main function but is still on - this includes things like TV's and PVR's that are on but are not playing or recording, and appliances being charged.
• In passive standby mode, where it is off; but ready to be switched back on (usually with a remote), or is still performing some secondary function (like showing the time or other display).
• Off, where it still connected, isn’t doing anything you can see or hear, can’t be switched on with a remote but may be performing some internal functions.

In all three cases, you are consuming energy.

Turn off unused appliances at the power point and save up to 800 kWh of electricity per year.

SMART power boards are the same as a regular power strip or power board, but it has a Master plug and four Controlled plugs. Switch off the device that’s plugged in to the Master socket, and all the devices plugged into the Controlled sockets will be switched off too. Handy!

There are two ‘uncontrolled’ sockets on the Smart Power, which is useful for devices that you do want to be always on or always available, such as a heater, lamp, PVR or Foxtel box, which need to be always-on to receive programming information.

A simple, inexpensive power usage monitor that goes between your power board (or single device) and the wall socket  will provide you with an estimate of just how much "standby power" drain is costing you.