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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

Original poster

How much electricity wasted before pulling the plug?

80 replies

watsitcheeto · 02/09/2021 18:26

I’ve actually turned into my dad. I remember as a kid getting called in if I had left the TV on to turn it off.

Anyho, my boyfriend is the worst for leaving TVs on. He rarely turns them off - never from the wall if he does. More often than not he’ll have two on at once as he poodles from the kitchen to the living room.

Anyho, I’ve taken to just pulling the plugs if he’s left them for more than 15minutes which has turned into him moaning that he’s lost his game progress (Xbox) or whatever.

Just to put into context him moving in has cased my electricity bill to go up 8x higher but I have charged him extra board to cover it.

AIBU that it really pisses me off?

OP posts:
icedcoffees · 02/09/2021 20:03

There is no way your bills have gone up by 8x just because he's leaving a few TV's on standby. Our TV is always on standby and so are things like the NowTV box.

It's easier to do that than it is to reboot them all everyday.

ThisBeTheName · 02/09/2021 20:05

@Hont1986

If you were posting this about your boyfriend, people would be calling him miserly and maybe even abusive.
Quite.

Also:

I have charged him extra board to cover it

Plus you are marching around telling him how to behave in his own home. Nice...

butterpuffed · 02/09/2021 20:05

TVs don't use much electricity. I read the other day not to switch it off at the wall overnight and to leave it on standby, just to pull the plug if you're away on holiday. Something to do with constantly unplugging it being detrimental to the TV, sorry, can't remember what.

ohidoliketobe · 02/09/2021 20:06

8 x higher? Give over.
Unless all your appliances are 30 odd years old and highly uneconomical, and you used then once a week, that's impluasible. Waiting for you to regail us with tales of your twin tub fancy pants washer and deeper than the screen width black and white TV

GetMeOut22 · 02/09/2021 20:07

You're insane.

Mylee · 02/09/2021 20:07

Yabu to say anyho

Keroppi · 02/09/2021 20:11

Omg. No! You need to step away from the plugs. This is passive aggressive and stingy. My FIL has no friends or life since retirement and sits at home in the dark and begrudges people leaving a light on for five minutes!! I never visit because it's such a ridiculous mindset for a TINY amount of money. He once told Alexa to turn the lights off whilst I was in the kitchen cooking and I went nuts. So pathetic!

Maybe you are unhappy with how often he is staying over/other things going on in your relationship with him and this is how you are coping or asserting control back over your living space?

powershowerforanhour · 02/09/2021 20:11

Doesanybodyturn their TV off from the wall?!

I do Blush as heard that they use 25% of the power of a switched on TV. But I come from the days of deeper than they were wide TVs that caught fire in the night and didn't have standby anyway. My 25% figure is probably from the days when standby was invented...and may have been bollocks even then. Happy to be educated.

I turn the lights off if I'm going to be out of the room for more than 15 minutes as thought that was the switchover point whereby power saved was greater than the power needed to switch it back on again...but that's from the days of incandescent bulbs...and may have been bollocks...

sbhydrogen · 02/09/2021 20:13

This would drive me absolutely nuts. I'm not surprised that you turn the plugs off at the wall just to make a point.

katieg03 · 02/09/2021 20:19

8 x??? That's impressive. Mine didn't go up that much and we went form the house being empty 5 days a week to having 4 of us at home full time on laptops 😂

1forAll74 · 02/09/2021 20:26

A lot of electricity is wasted in some homes. I have witnessed quite a few women, who are constantly using their washing machines, and just putting in two or three items of baby clothes. because something has been spilt on them. then put in some more stuff, as it has been left on the floor by another child. so all day, the washing machine is going, with only a few things in it.. Then dryers are in constant use, to maybe dry only a few little things at a time, as they don't ever hang things on a line outside.

They probably watch those ads on TV, where a man or a woman, just chucks one T SHIRT in the washing machine, then throws in a tablet, and puts the washing machine on. Then smiles at the super clean results later.

Againstmachine · 02/09/2021 20:36

Unless he has started putting heaters in your flat they shouldn't have increased by amount you said.

namechange7865 · 02/09/2021 20:36

Electricity bills have increased a lot this year, I'm sure an increase of that size is more to do with that. But I like the idea of your lodger bearing the brunt of that Grin

MissCruellaDeVil · 02/09/2021 20:40

8 times higher? What a load of shit!

Original poster
watsitcheeto · 02/09/2021 20:42

Oh god I’m getting absolutely flamed here.

It’s not 8x higher, I had family staying over a few months before he moved in. With the machine machine on constantly (as there were a couple of young kids staying), and someone working from home his bill was considerably higher.

The bill I’m basing it on was when I rarely home and it was considerably higher than when I had five people in the house - before he moved in I had lodgers and it’s way more than I’ve ever had before.

There’s three TVs in this house and it’s not a rarity for all of them to be on. He’ll forget that he had the tv on in the bedroom to get dressed when I go upstairs after work.

I’d never turn it off if I know he’s actually watching it but tonight he had two TVs on, one playing Xbox and went out. There’s also no concept of turning a light off. He switches the tv off onto standby (which I know isn’t the worst thing in the world) with the Xbox still on.

He’s stopped putting one thing in the tumble dryer because he couldn’t be bothered to put it on the line as I was quite open how much that annoyed me.

But thank you for advice I’ll stop pulling the plugs now (I wouldn’t do it but I don’t know how to turn the Xbox off and rarely can I find the remote either).

OP posts:
Original poster
watsitcheeto · 02/09/2021 20:48

@GreenTortoise

I’m not suggesting that I turn off the tv during the half time break. I’m mean I get pissed off when it turns to my big fat gypsy wedding that I know for sure that he doesn’t want to watch (and probably moved onto another room to play Xbox!)

OP posts:
namechange7865 · 02/09/2021 20:49

To be fair I turn the Xbox off at the wall due to the annoying whirring noise it makes even if supposedly off.

lobsterkiller · 02/09/2021 20:52

Erm, i unplug my tvs and other stuff all the time. Not the wifi or fridge 😂.

Im a kid of the 70s and they used to have a information advert stating it as the nightime routine. Funny. what sticks in the head.

As other posters have said if your bills are 8 x higher, check the loft.

Original poster
watsitcheeto · 02/09/2021 20:58

Sorry also I think there’s been a misunderstanding here... I don’t mean when they’re left on standby. I don’t go looking for little red lights. I mean the tv left on for hours blaring away with nobody watching it. Maybe I should just set a timer for it to go to sleep.

I’ve never lived alone as I’ve always had lodgers but the bill is considerably higher than I’ve ever paid. Tonight he went out to football and there were three TVs on when I came out of the study.

OP posts:
keiratwiceknightly · 02/09/2021 20:59

Check your loft for a cannabis farm.

Drgnbllx · 02/09/2021 21:16

If you keep unplugging the Xbox without shutting it down it could corrupt it, especially if its in the middle of updating. I frequently leave my console on paused for 15 mins while I get something to eat/do the washing/have a conversation etc. And my PC if often left on downloading things or running programs or the like. If someone went around yanking things out the wall because I went off to have a shower and making me lose whatever I was doing I wouldn't live there very long.

You sound a bit deranged tbh.

TractorAndHeadphones · 02/09/2021 21:30

@watsitcheeto

Sorry also I think there’s been a misunderstanding here... I don’t mean when they’re left on standby. I don’t go looking for little red lights. I mean the tv left on for hours blaring away with nobody watching it. Maybe I should just set a timer for it to go to sleep.

I’ve never lived alone as I’ve always had lodgers but the bill is considerably higher than I’ve ever paid. Tonight he went out to football and there were three TVs on when I came out of the study.

YANBU that would annoy me too - but not the cause of the electricity bills. Only power hungry appliances like driers, fridge and washing machines that would cause such a spike.

Unless he’s mining Bitcoin or doing some other intensive operations with a computer? Does he have a high spec PC?

EducatingArti · 02/09/2021 21:37

[quote girlmom21]@RichardMarxisinnocent same concept - lots of things that can be left on standby will need to completely reboot instead if turned off/unplugged at the wall.
Things like your virgin/sky box, WiFi etc will use more electricity rebooting than they would on standby. [/quote]
I really don't think this is true. Standby uses less electricity than being on, but if you completely turned it off it uses none for that period. The TV can't use more electricity for booting up than it used being on fully.
The only way what you have said could be true is if you were turning the TV off at the wall for a shorter time than it Thales to boot up.

Boatonthehorizon · 02/09/2021 21:38

I leave them all on all the time. My combined electricity and gas is a very reasonable £62 per month.

Wherearemymarbles · 02/09/2021 21:43

Wonder if he has left the immersion heater on….