To turn off the switches at plug sockets?

[KenAdams]

I do it for phone chargers etc, but not kitchen appliances. DH says it drives him mad because his phone doesn't charge when he's plugged it in overnight because I've turned the switch off and is unnecessary (he comes from a country where they don't have switches on plugs), but I've always done it because I just thought you were supposed to.

Who is being unreasonable?

I leave all the socket switches on and just pay for an extra kilowatt of energy a quarter.

Always thought this was a bit OCD.
How would my sky+ record all my rubbish stuff if it was switched off and unplugged? I don't even switch stuff off when I go on holiday.

cambridge I heard the cube things are a big fire hazard I still have one for emergencies though because there's too much electricity going through such a small area. Flat plug adaptors are better.

I have loads of things plugged into foreign adaptors, am wondering now if this is suicidal.

I think that all you can realistically do is take reasonable precautions - otherwise you'd spend your entire life in bed to avoid the risk of getting up. (And several years back, a 10 year old building two down from me was completely razed by fire after a fault in its hard wiring went off. Nothing anyone would have known to do about that as it turned out.)

i turn off phone chargers/laptop chargers because I was told that if it is plugged in it will draw electricity although thinking about it its probably bollocks

sherbetpips most phone chargers contain transformers which will use electricity when they are not charging, but, it's very small, typically 0.1w. That will cost around 14p a year.

Turn of telephone at the wall as a few things on that and easier than turning them all off. I think the charger things is true as they are warm when you touch them. Although how much electricity they use if they aren't charging can't be that much. Personally I find it more annoying when things aren't just plugged in and on than I care about tiny amounts of electricity being used.

My rule of thumb is if the plug gets warm then switch it off whenever possible. My DAB radios get very hot at the plug when switched off so they're obviously a) wasting energy and b) fire hazards

Oh and yes, when the fire brigade cake round to fit our alarm and do a safety check the only thing they objected to was our cube adapter plugs. They made me promise faithfully to throw them out and replace them with long flat ones on cables.

It's not right or wrong, but just where you care to draw the line between convenience and safety.

We could all reduce risk when we go out by turning off the lighting circuit at the meter/circuit breaker, but we don't. In my case it would mean having a torch to fetch a chair to stand on to turn it back on and therefore more trouble for what it's worth.

Thanks - good old MN saves the day again :)