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Child Item

Turning off v Plugging out

splashthecash

My wife is driving me nuts at the minute after reading some articles about how a high percentage of fires start from appliances such as TVs remaining plugged in over night as opposed to just going on standby.

It's a relatively small thing but curious how many people actually unplug/switch off the power socket to their main TV every night before they go to bed?

P.S. Things such as phone chargers left plugged in are supposed to be a common reason for fires also

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Blowfish

smoking_kills wrote: »

Heres a link.....http://www.cnet.com/uk/news/power-consumption-how-much-are-your-gadgets-costing-you/

A 42 inch tv will cost you about $30 a year on standby
A HDTV box will cost about $10 a year on standby.

So she's saving about a tenner a year :eek:

It should really be pointed out that it's a 42 inch plasma tv, which will have a much higher power draw than an LED TV.

It's also from 2009, so older less power efficient tech when it comes to the PC stuff.

SpaceTime

I find a lot of older people will also equate a mobile phone charger's tiny power consumption to a vented tumble dryer.

People don't seem to always understand that some appliances use thousands of times more energy than others.

Cantona's Collars

smoking_kills wrote: »

Heres a link.....http://www.cnet.com/uk/news/power-consumption-how-much-are-your-gadgets-costing-you/

A 42 inch tv will cost you about $30 a year on standby
A HDTV box will cost about $10 a year on standby.

So she's saving about a tenner a year :eek:

Tried explaining the amount it uses,trust me,if you met these people you'd realise that they'd be kings of The Stingy Thread we have in AH.
They won't get Fibre broadband as it will cost €4 more than the useless dongle they have plus they asked "do we have to keep the router plugged in?"

Calibos

Reminds me of a Christmas Turkey Story but not in the way you are already thinking

A woman learned to prepare the Xmas Turkey a certain way from her mother. It was always delicious. Someone asked her about her method. She cut the legs off and placed them in the neck or something. She told the person this but the person said they couldn't understand how doing this could possibly affect the taste. This got the woman herself curious. She decided to ask her own mother who taught her the method, why she prepared the turkey this way. The woman's mother said that she did not know, that it was her mother who taught her this method. i.e. The first woman's granny.

The next family get together both women asked the granny why she had passed down this method of preparing the turkey or where she had learnt it.

The granny matter of factly said, "because I didn't have a basting tray big enough for a full sized turkey."

All the unplugged are basically doing it because mammy or daddy used to do it and their parents before them for similar reasons until you get to the generation living in a time when it actually was dangerous to leave stuff plugged in.

smoking_kills

zerks wrote: »

Tried explaining the amount it uses,trust me,if you met these people you'd realise that they'd be kings of The Stingy Thread we have in AH.
They won't get Fibre broadband as it will cost €4 more than the useless dongle they have plus they asked "do we have to keep the router plugged in?"

Ah no I know. I have a stingy person next to me. Every time I go in the house is freezing, they wont turn the heating on because of the cost..

SpaceTime

A lot of very early appliances were pretty crude and genuinely were fire hazards. They'd things like cloth insulated wiring and were made out of flammable wood cases etc.

Also old television sets contained lots of heat producing high voltage parts.

It made sense to plug out. Even old 1920s flexes could spontaneously combust ! They were natural (perishable) rubber covered with cotton!

Safety testing was also very minimal.

That's not the case today. Most appliances are very very safe.

[Deleted User]

ironclaw wrote: »

Respectfully disagree with that advice. If it was merely a maintenance switch, why bother having it in the kitchen? You could just mount it directly on the fuse board as your going to have it on a larger fuse anyway for the cooker ring circuit. Also, just checked my catalogue there, the average switch is good for 10,000 to 100,000 operations. Thats anywhere between 7 and 10+ years of 4 uses per day. Its not going to wear out all that quick and given the construction of an isolator switch, arcing and fires are unlikely.

Personally, I'd rather spend €50 replacing a switch (A 10 minute job) than repairing a burnt down house. Leave the cooker / hob on to cool down by fan but if its not being used its safer off. Its terrifyingly easy on some hobs / grills to knock them on to even a low heat and not noticed. Also if kids are in the house.

I'm only stating the facts. That's what those switches are designed for. Isolation. I have no problem with people switching them on and off after they've cooled down and done their thing to completely isolate the appliance, especially where children are concerned.

I do have a problem with lazy people who won't give there appliances time to cool down or think its OK that that single switch can directly power on your oven and 4 ring hob in one flick because they didnt bother to switch it off properly. Same goes for showers. That will burn out your switch in no time which is another fire hazard. As for the reason of having that isolator in your kitchen, the regulations state that it can't be mounted any more than 2 metres away from the appliance. An isolator has a higher current rating than the MCB on the fuse board. Those operation figures you stated are only correct if the switch is used properly.

That_Girl_ Is_ A_Cowboy

I was watching the rte program of the dublin fire brigade and they mentioned this about plugged in chargers going on fire. Laptop batteries I think they also mentioned are another source of fire. They also mentioned hotpresses are another danger zone. Reason is there is much wiring in the hotpress. People usually store things in the hotpress and they mentioned around the wiring should be kept free. When a fire starts in a hotpress, it catches on due to items stored like sheets, towels, etc.

Lightbulb Sun

Yes, I usually turn off or unplug phone and laptop chargers when not in use.

SpaceTime

Incidentally, in almost all other countries cookers are just plugged in using a very large plug under the counter.

There is normally no isolation switch, yet millions of Continental European and North American homes don't burn down.

The traditional hot press seems far riskier!
Sheets, towels, very dry and you've wiring that's never mechanically protected.

All wiring should be outside the hot press cupboard.

kylith

Calibos wrote: »

Reminds me of a Christmas Turkey Story but not in the way you are already thinking

A woman learned to prepare the Xmas Turkey a certain way from her mother. It was always delicious. Someone asked her about her method. She cut the legs off and placed them in the neck or something. She told the person this but the person said they couldn't understand how doing this could possibly affect the taste. This got the woman herself curious. She decided to ask her own mother who taught her the method, why she prepared the turkey this way. The woman's mother said that she did not know, that it was her mother who taught her this method. i.e. The first woman's granny.

The next family get together both women asked the granny why she had passed down this method of preparing the turkey or where she had learnt it.

The granny matter of factly said, "because I didn't have a basting tray big enough for a full sized turkey."

All the unplugged are basically doing it because mammy or daddy used to do it and their parents before them for similar reasons until you get to the generation living in a time when it actually was dangerous to leave stuff plugged in.

While that's one of my favourite tales (though I heard it with roast beef) I don't unplug appliances because I'm afraid of fire, I do it because even if it only costs €5 a year to leave them plugged in all year it's €5 that's better off in my pocket than in the electricity company's.

SpaceTime

Ironically, high power appliances plugged into worn out sockets with loose springs due to over use and age are a significant cause of fire.

Also that €10 a year you save would want to be put aside for replacing loose sockets and worn out switches

Blowfish

kylith wrote: »

While that's one of my favourite tales (though I heard it with roast beef) I don't unplug appliances because I'm afraid of fire, I do it because even if it only costs €5 a year to leave them plugged in all year it's €5 that's better off in my pocket than in the electricity company's.

Do you not value your time at all though? Suppose it takes 2 minutes a night to unplug everything, that works out at 12 hours a year you spend just unplugging things. Personally I'd be quite happy to spend the €5 and save myself the 12 hours.

danniemcq

kylith wrote: »

While that's one of my favourite tales (though I heard it with roast beef) I don't unplug appliances because I'm afraid of fire, I do it because even if it only costs €5 a year to leave them plugged in all year it's €5 that's better off in my pocket than in the electricity company's.

to me that fiver is worth it for just being able to click a button and have my tv on, or move the mouse and my computer will wake up, plug in a phone and you know its charging.

LoonyLovegood

I'm in student accommodation, and EVERYONE turns off the isolator switch for the oven, which drives me nuts. We don't have a clock on it, so there's no way it's using much electricity at all. But we're stingy students, I suppose.

SpaceTime

No issue turning it off as long as you let it run any cooldown cycles first if it has fans.

Older and more basic ovens often didn't have any of this stuff so it made no difference.

Modern ovens are a lot more electronics laden.

o1s1n

seamus wrote: »

Afaik this is because CRTs store a huge amount of power in capacitors internally. If they short or overload, they will cause a fire. Other appliances are largely protected from surges causing fires because of their fuses, but the capacitors in a CRT are behind the fuses, so can blow without blowing the fuse.

Most CRTs automatically discharge all of that high voltage when powered off, so realistically, one isn't going to just randomly burst into flames.

If you're ever working on one it's still a good idea to manually discharge by removing the anode cap with a grounded screwdriver, but in most cases you won't see any great flashes of light when doing this as it's already discharged.

Cheapo power supplies are far more likely to cause house fires than an unplugged CRT.

A plugged in CRT runs the same risk any other device runs really. Which is also practically zero.

Something the 'pluggers out' are missing out on is wear and tear. If you're constantly plugging things in and out, you're applying force to the plug and socket. Which isn't good either...

shruikan2553

Why not just use the switch? You are breaking the circuit and not destroying the plug.

o1s1n

Some people don't have sockets with switches. My house doesn't. I'll get around to replacing them all some day.

Many devices have this great thing called an 'off button' :pac:

I tend to leave things plugged in but just switch them off if they don't have some standby function (like Sky's HDD etc)

Pawn

splashthecash wrote: »

It's a relatively small thing but curious how many people actually unplug/switch off the power socket to their main TV every night before they go to bed?

No, we don't unplug anything. WiFi, TV, gaming consoles, etc are all on standby at night. Mobile phones are being changed overnight, even laptops are left on running sometimes. I just can't see myself running around the house unplugging everything, then torment myself with thoughts "Have I not missed the one in the kitchen? Better get up and double check...", then run late into work because of morning ceremony of going around the gaff plugging everything back in... Madness.

Feck all this, watch for everything all the time, minimise risks, eat healthy, exercise and all that, to be killed by a stroke or a drunk driver on my way to work. Life isn't worth constant sacrifice.

Blowfish

o1s1n wrote: »

Some people don't have sockets with switches.

Indeed, in fact the place I'm renting actually still has a good few 2 pin sockets sitting around somehow. I presume they are deactivated, but there's no way I'm even going to test that.

ironclaw

Blowfish wrote: »

Indeed, in fact the place I'm renting actually still has a good few 2 pin sockets sitting around somehow. I presume they are deactivated, but there's no way I'm even going to test that.

Like two pin wall sockets? Pretty sure thats illegal here unless they are the earthed type.

SpaceTime

ironclaw wrote: »

Like two pin wall sockets? Pretty sure thats illegal here unless they are the earthed type.

If they're the two pin sockets with earth clips known as 'Schuko', the same type used in most continental countries, they're probably completely legal as they were once Irish standard and are covered by an Irish standards document IS 180. The UK round 3 pin sockets are also still recognised in standards for legacy purposes.

They're probably indicative of a very old installation though (likely to be pre 1960s)

They're installed legally in hotels to avoid continental tourists using dodgy adaptors and also in some specialist circumstances.

The socket would be recessed with a metal clip at the top and bottom of the curricular recess. If you've visited the continent you'll know them straight away.

If they're old British two pin sockets that have no earths, they're illegal. Those had two fat round pins and the plugs aren't likely to be available anymore. These would be flat sockets. They're actually a very obsolete and quite dangerous design for a whole load of reasons.

Either way, get your landlord to have the wiring reviewed at best it's complying with 1960s Irish standards and could be A LOT older.

KyussBishop

I dunno - it seems that every year or two, you hear a new myth about the 'most dangerous home appliance' when it comes to house fires - if you read up on it a bit, the ones that seem most statistically dangerous, you can't necessarily unplug/turn-off easily (e.g. large appliances; ovens/fridges/dishwashers/dryers).

SpaceTime

Dryers aren't particularly dangerous if used and maintained properly.

You need to clean them out carefully. That means taking filters and condensors out.

Older ones probably need to actually be unplugged and opened once a year and carefully hoovered out. They can become full of fluff!

kylith

Blowfish wrote: »

Do you not value your time at all though? Suppose it takes 2 minutes a night to unplug everything, that works out at 12 hours a year you spend just unplugging things. Personally I'd be quite happy to spend the €5 and save myself the 12 hours.

The time is usually being wasted anyway. OH unplugs/switches off the sockets while waiting for the dogs to have a wee before bed, then I plug them in/turn them on while waiting for the kettle to boil when I get home from work. They're probably off for a good 16/17 hours every day. Why would I pay to have something on standby when there's no possibility of it being used for that long?

SpaceTime

I know someone in Belgium who switches off the power and water to the washing machine and dishwasher when not in use !

I would only switch off the water if I were going away for an extended period but, on the continent in apartment complexes it's a traditional thing to do to avoid flooding your neighbours if a hose bursts.

Modern machines have aquastop valves on the ends of the hoses that cut the water so there's never any pressure on the rubber hoses!

We don't bother with them a apartments are relatively rare.

stevedublin

TiltedBrain wrote: »

Just turn the power off going to your house from the fuse box.

this is what i do when going away on holidays

o1s1n

SpaceTime wrote: »

Dryers aren't particularly dangerous if used and maintained properly.

You need to clean them out carefully. That means taking filters and condensors out.

Older ones probably need to actually be unplugged and opened once a year and carefully hoovered out. They can become full of fluff!

I didn't realize about the 'fluff' in the filter until recently! We moved into a new place with a dryer, never had one before.

I was having a good look at it and found a compartment with a thing that slide out. Turned out to be the filter.

The amount of fluff :eek: It all came out together in one big thick square. Looked like a tshirt! Smelled lovely

Oink

SpaceTime wrote: »

My dad has a habit of switching off the cooker isolator switch.

I feel your pain. Our fridge and cooker are on the same circuit or something. Every time any of the in-laws are left in the house for a while, we have to empty the fridge/freezer and feck it all in the bin. Bless' em :rolleyes:.