Is it worth shutting down TV every night

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  • drod
    Automated Home Jr Member
    • Nov 2008
    • 30

    Is it worth shutting down TV every night

    Hi All,

    I'm trying to become a little "greener" and wondered about auto-powering devices off on a nightly basis. The main devices I'm thinking of are some AV equipment in a home cinema room.

    My idea was to install an SRH or similar and power off the following equipment every night, say between 2200 and 0800 (unless someone was in the room):
    • TV
    • AV receiver
    • DVD
    • Perhaps Sky box

    Do you think it's woth the effort/cost to do this? Am I likely to see more problems stopping/starting the devices every day?
  • Gumby
    Moderator
    • May 2004
    • 437

    #2
    You can work out the average cost/yr/watt from your electricity bill, this gives a handy figure of merit to decide on whether controlling power to a device is worthwhile, when combined with a plug-in power meter to measure active and standby power. My calculation was that it is a little over £1/W/yr, which is an easily remembered figure.

    For AV equipment you could use an SRH or similar, or possibly X10 (although may be less reliable) and integrate turning on and off into your IR control scheme. You could also look at one of the IntelliPanel devices, which is designed for exactly this application.

    I have been working my way round my house looking at each device and it's standby power and then using either SRHs or X10 appliance devices to do the same thing you propose.

    I haven't found any issues with turning things on and off, PVR type devices have to stay on and some devices (like digi-boxes) have no memory and lose all their configuration when powered off.
    ----------------------
    www.gumbrell.com

    Comment

    • Paul_B
      Automated Home Legend
      • Jul 2006
      • 608

      #3
      Very low tech approach at the moment using some 7x24 hour digital timers from Argos. However, with just three of them I'm saving significant energy (normally around 500KWh per month now down at 430KWh) by switching off wireless AP, laser printer, inkjet printer, TV , DVD, Sky during the day when we are out and during the night when we are asleep.

      This will eventually by controled by Cortex and Idratek

      Paul

      Comment

      • pdwarriner
        Automated Home Jr Member
        • Nov 2008
        • 25

        #4
        I have configured a DFP button as a "good night". This runs a macro that is set up to turn off TV, video (with annoying mega bright VF clock), DVD, hifi, freeview, lamps, lights, infact everything in the house except the fridge freezer.

        I have all such appliances running off sockets controlled by SRH modules, which in turn go to various distribution plugs (the usual cabling mess behind the TV). I find it work well and I can also press anotyher button to toggle it back when settling in for an evening of TV.

        Luckily my video is autotuning and is still good at doing so after 5 years.

        Regards,
        Peter.

        Comment

        • chris_j_hunter
          Automated Home Legend
          • Dec 2007
          • 1713

          #5
          short answer is, you need to do the sum ... but it's a difficult one to do ! When we looked at this, we found things on standby use a lot less than they used to ... and the cost of devices to do better, to switch them off, automatically, could be significant - ie: pay-back times were seldom short, even when capital costs were ignored, and assuming nothing fails ... plus switching things on & off could worsen thermal cycles, and so make things fail sooner ... and (outside of the week or two that counts as Summer) the house has to be heated anyway, which offsets some (only some) of the cost, anyway ... hmm, no easy answer !
          Last edited by chris_j_hunter; 22 July 2009, 08:30 AM.
          Our self-build - going further with HA...

          Comment

          • pdwarriner
            Automated Home Jr Member
            • Nov 2008
            • 25

            #6
            For me it was also for safety to make sure things weren't left on all night. The switch mode PSU in our large TV makes a high pitch whistling (even in standby) so that defintely had to be powered.

            As regards being 'green' well I just felt it was a waste burning power, yes you can offset that against the energy to make/ship/run the devices that save you the power, but personally I think we take energy for granted and anything in the right direction is a good move.

            P.

            Comment

            • drod
              Automated Home Jr Member
              • Nov 2008
              • 30

              #7
              Thanks for that - sounds like it may not be cost effective, but could be a good idea for specific instances, such as TV's.

              I like the idea of Peter's "good night" button and may think about implementing something like that.

              For the A/V equipment, I'd thought I could have two banks of sockets in a cupboard. One set controlled by an SRH etc, and an uncontrolled set, then plug items such as TV screen, DVD etc into the controlled one.

              To be honest the main area of concern for me was the larger stuff, such as TV's around the house, A/V equipment, and any IT peripherals. The smaller stuff may not be worth the cost/hassle as already pointed out.

              Comment

              • chris_j_hunter
                Automated Home Legend
                • Dec 2007
                • 1713

                #8
                BTW - according to latest Which? tests (August), looks like LCD TVs on standby use 0.1 to 0.3W, according to model => less than 10 to 30p per annum ...
                Our self-build - going further with HA...

                Comment

                • Paul_B
                  Automated Home Legend
                  • Jul 2006
                  • 608

                  #9
                  Chris,

                  Whilst I agree LCD use very little power they still use power and whats the point leaving them on if you are asleep / out?

                  Bigger problem for me is the children leaving things on and then going out or doing something else. My teenage daughter was switching her computer on in the mornings before school so she wouldn't have to wait for it to boot when she got home. It is a relatively old Pentium 4 so would draw about 125W! But not anymore ;0)

                  I was also surprised that a laser printer, inkjet printer and access point were drawing over 35W. So again these get turned off during the day and at night

                  Paul

                  Comment

                  • Gumby
                    Moderator
                    • May 2004
                    • 437

                    #10
                    I recommend getting a plug-in power meter and working round the house looking at the active and standby consumption of all devices that can be turned off. It's quite illuminating!

                    What is quite surprising is how all those 10W devices add up. Sometimes it is difficult to concentrate them in one place, so the payback period can be longer.

                    Don't forget that the power savings can be improved by going further than just "goodnight" or a timeclock function. For some devices presence control will be appropriate, and others can be switched on by monitoring their own remote control if you have IR RX/TX modules or panels.

                    Also, if you fit structured CAT5 everywhere, you can create a "portable" network controlled socket of your own and use the CAT5 to connect to Idranet.
                    ----------------------
                    www.gumbrell.com

                    Comment

                    • chris_j_hunter
                      Automated Home Legend
                      • Dec 2007
                      • 1713

                      #11
                      >bigger problem ...

                      looks like, as well as a good-night button, a kids-about button might be good, too ... and perhaps a visitors-about button could be good, as well - to put the system into a modified mode ... hmm, might do this !

                      >portable network controlled socket ...

                      sounds good, and maybe for other things, too ... can't remember, would Cortex get upset if a device that had been set-up was then moved around, socket to socket ?
                      Our self-build - going further with HA...

                      Comment

                      • Gumby
                        Moderator
                        • May 2004
                        • 437

                        #12
                        Cortex will notice if a module is disconnected, but if you disable it first it will be happy. I'm not sure whether you'd have to restart the network after pluggin back in.

                        Best to be thought of as semi-permanent measure than equivalent to something like an X10 AM12.
                        ----------------------
                        www.gumbrell.com

                        Comment

                        • Viv
                          Automated Home Ninja
                          • Dec 2004
                          • 284

                          #13
                          Originally posted by chris_j_hunter View Post
                          > would Cortex get upset if a device that had been set-up was then moved around, socket to socket ?
                          If a device is enable when the network is started then Cortex expects it to be there. If a device fails to respond or is unplugged then Cortex will consider the device faulty and stop communicating with it until it sees the device wake-up e.g. plugged in and powers up. At which point Cortex will re-configure the device to work as if it been started normally.

                          For users of a Idratek Power Supply it will know what devices are powered on which spur. If a device fails for whatever reason then the power supply can be optionally set-up to re-power the spur which resets all devices on that spur. In such circumstances, with this option set, removing a device will cause the power supply to turn off the spur and re-power it. Depending on the topology of your network this could cause momentary undesirable effects. Also if you unplugged from one spur and plugged it into another then this would also confuse the IPS logic. So this feature of the IPS should be turned off.

                          Viv.

                          Comment

                          • chris_j_hunter
                            Automated Home Legend
                            • Dec 2007
                            • 1713

                            #14
                            >if a device fails to respond or is unplugged ... Cortex will consider the device faulty and stop communicating with it until it sees the device wake-up ... at which point Cortex will re-configure the device to work as if it been started normally ...

                            interesting - in which case, it would seem, it might be OK to set-up the device (whatever it is, but on a lead) in several places ... then, whenever it's plugged-in, it would be recognised & work OK, after a small delay, maybe ...

                            >IPS ...

                            hmmm ... turning it off would solve the problem, but ...

                            ... anyway, BRS ... last time I saw such initials, it stood for British Road Services ... (!)
                            Our self-build - going further with HA...

                            Comment

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