How much electricity wasted before pulling the plug?

[watsitcheeto]

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?

@Wherearemymarbles

Wonder if he has left the immersion heater on….

Better check the electric blankets OP! And the percolator!

Surely selling off all the cannabis should cover the extra electricity from the farm?

Why is he spending so much time watching your multiple televisions?
Doesn’t he work?

How old is your tv?! Ours cost pence a week to run.

booting up a computer does not cause a power surge resulting in extra power being used,the total consumption remains the same pet kilowatt hour

@DuckDuckGooses

8x?!

What is he doing, growing a hot house in your loft?!

Or were you living by candlelight and cooking on a gas bottle before he moved in?

😂😂😂😂😂

I understand your pain my inlaws stayed a few months inbetween house moves and left the lights on in every room they went it, it was like Blackpool illuminations all the time. The bills were mental. Heating was also full blast as they swaned around the house in T-shirts.
Not good for the pocket or the environment... It will bug you forever if he does'nt change especially if his wasteful attitude extends to other areas too!

@1forAll74

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.

Maybe the boyfriend is a Mumsnetter who washes his towels after every single use.

Just transfer the bill in his name and let him get on with it

@mogsrus

booting up a computer does not cause a power surge resulting in extra power being used,the total consumption remains the same pet kilowatt hour

No, it won't have a constant consumption per hour. It will depend on whether the wifi is in use, hard discs are spinning, the GPU is in use, etc.

8x you say.

Has he put a cannabis farm in your loft?

So many MNers explaining increased electricity usage by the obvious cause of a cannabis farm in the loft

the only device in a house that starts with a power surge is a fridge that's why you need a 13amp fuse in the plug,because it draws a huge amount of power to start compressor, quickly reducing when it gets settled,unless it's an inverter motor,which never stops,thereby reducing start-up load. everything else in electrical devices will consume under full load conditions what is stated on the KWh label if it says 100watts it will run for 10hours before consuming 1K and if your electricity is priced at say 60p per KWh that device will cost 60 pence every 10hours

There is no way they could go 8 times higher unless you lived in the stone age before or now he has hydroponics running in your loft or is charging an electric car.

An XBox uses around .2 of a kilowatt an hour when playing a game, so if he plays for five ours it would cost you about 15p, at idle (eg paused) it will use about .1 and in standby it uses 0.005. A 65" TV would use around 100 Watts an hour.
So if he is leaving the TV on for ten hours a day, playing his XBox for five and leaving it paused for another five, every day of the week, that would be costing you around £10 a month.

Also if you are turning TV etc. off at the wall all you are doing is shortening their life, a modern TV in standby uses around 5 Watts an hour, which means it costs around £6 per year.

Say 40 inch led tv at 80 watts

On for 24 hours so nearly 2kwh of energy used

So about 30p

Wasteful , harmful to environment but not very expensive

About the same as a 10 min electric shower

That's the trouble with electric bills, it's lots of little bits

I must admit that I’ve taken to walking into the lounge saying ‘oh what’s this, the TV on and no one watching it’ before clicking it to stand-by with a flounce 🤣🤣

You don't need to turn then off at the wall! Omg this is like a thing from the 80s.

There's no way the TV's being on increased the leccy bill 8 times. Just no way.
Things like kettles, washing machine, fans, electric hobs etc are the big eaters of electricity

Also how old are your TVs because our TV switches off after no one has changed the channel in a couple of hours or something. And that's at least 8 years old.
Maybe you need new ones

You shouldn't unplug things like televisions every time you're not using it. Only unplug if it's not going to be used for a few weeks. They're not designed to be plugged in and unplugged daily, it's a sure fire way of drastically shortening their lifespan.

It's true that in the past appliances on standby drew a lot of power, but anything manufactured in the last decade or two will draw next to nothing. Any energy and expense it wastes will be dwarfed by the cost (financially and environmentally) of having to get a new unit when it breaks.

Pulling the plug out is a shitty tantrum thing to do. Talk to him like an adult.

Most modern TV's (and even some older ones) have the ability to set an off timer. I'd set all of them up with one, if someone is watching the TV when it starts to shut down all it takes is a press of a button to keep it on. To turn the Xbox off there is a round button with an X on, press that. As above, unplugging the Xbox without shutting it down first can result it in eventually breaking.

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

No, computers use power as a proportion of the amount of work they're doing, booting up a computer is an expensive activity, so booting up itself will use significantly more than on standby, but both numbers are very small. So it would certainly be longer than boot time, how long depends on lots of other factors, but overnight is not completely out of the bounds of possibility, but likely less, and the less "SMART" your tv, the shorter the time.

Just doing random forced shutdowns by off at the plug would also increase the booting up cost as it would need to check and fix the state when it lost power unexpectedly.

But no modern TV can come close to impacting your electricity bills compared to heating, washing, cooking etc.

Modern appliances use barely any power when on "standby".

The big drivers of elec bill arent devices left on standby. Its fridges, freezers, tumble driers, hair dryers.

But it would annoy me loads of TVs being left fully on not watched, I would turn off too. He needs to get in the habit of saving his games when he gets up from the xbox.

Maybe the boyfriend is a Mumsnetter who washes his towels after every single use

And he has 2 or 3 showers a day because any less is simply disgusting and your body odour knocks people out in the next room.

@ThisBeTheName

So many MNers explaining increased electricity usage by the obvious cause of a cannabis farm in the loft

That's about the only thing that would cause and eightfold increase though.