‘Standby’ wastes 3.6m tCO2 annually
The BBC’s recent article, TV’s ’sleep’ button stands accused, reports that TVs and other gadgets left on standby, or ’sleep mode’, are the cause of a vast amount of wasted power.
TVs alone create 480′000 tonnes of carbon dioxide emissions from wasted power per year, with VCRs producing double that.
Stereos, Consoles, DVD players and Set-top boxes, contribute more than 2 million further tonnes, bringing the total to 3.59m tonnes. That’s enough for a staggering 1.4 million long-haul flights.
The enormity of these numbers makes them hard to appreciate, so try this: the average home has 12 gadgets left on standby, often even over a fortnight-long holiday. Think of the number of computer monitors in offices around the country, how many of those will be turned off? We can be fairly sure that the majority won’t.
Perhaps the money wasted can persuade the public-joe to avoid ’standby’.
£740m split between the population equates to more than £12 per person, or £30 per household.
There is good news on the horizon however: the “1-Watt Plan” initiative from The International Energy Agency aims to reduce standby requirements for all new appliances to be below 1 Watt by 2010.
Naturally, the cheaper and easier option is to simply turn appliances off.