We got a Panasonic flat screen TV about a year ago. Love it – no problems. Use it with a PVR.

Then I went and bought one of those power meter plug things (mainly to see what all my PCs are using). I was amazed to see the TV uses 80 watts when turned OFF: as in OFF with the mechanical switch on the facia (not the remote)!

That’s around £100 a year I reckon.

It’s supposed to use 0.1w in standby and 0.0 when off.

A lot of head scratching and some googling : I discovers this gem: when I hit the power off IT WONT TURN ITSELF FULLY OFF UNTIL ITS UPDATED ITSELF AND THE FREEVIEW SCHEDULE. Of course I’ve got a PVR so there never is a freeview signal so it keeps looking!

So it been sitting in my living room burning 80 watts for 23 hours a day. Ok – so I should be turning if off at the wall but the switch is hidden behind everything and I’m lazy.

Running a feed from the PVR to the TV has fixed it.

Technology eh!

How interesting.

Wow.

Bejaysus, I’ve got a big (42″?) Panasonic plasma with a V+ box ( so no preview channels either)so I’m probably in the same boat…bloody hell…I make a point of turning it off on the telly every night. I will be very annoyed if off isn’t really off…. 👿 👿

‘Snap’ on this bit too:

Ok – so I should be turning if off at the wall but the switch is hidden behind everything.

IT WONT TURN ITSELF FULLY OFF UNTIL ITS UPDATED ITSELF AND THE FREEVIEW SCHEDULE

can’t you switch that feature off? Panasonic was on my list of potential buys, but it’s a bit carp if it’s gonna use up that much power when it’s supposed to be off.

can’t you switch that feature off?

I dont know – that would involve reading the manual!

Hopefully it’s a bug that got fixed since mine. If might even have been sorted in an OTA update – but of course mine never received any.

But I’ve gone and bought one of those remote control Mains on / off thingies – that’ll kill it proper 🙂

hmm we have a Panasonic flat screen bought just before xmas. We don’t use the built-in freeview either (all our tv comes through sky+) but it has the latest firmware etc so I wonder whether this has been fixed?

Is this just Panasonic or general tvs?

The stuff I came across was for Panasonic THnn PX70 and PX80’s. I dont know about others.

What’s PVR?

What’s PVR?

Things like
Sky+
Freesat+.
Freeview+
V+

But the same would have applied to any settop box to feed the TV where it wasnt getting a freeview feed.

we’ve got all our tv, dvd, virgin box etc on a IR activated extension lead – when you hit the standby button on the tv remote it powers down the whole lot.

got it free from British Gas.

I dont know – that would involve reading the manual!

MTFU and just start a new thread.

you can get a free energy saving plug via cyclescheme at the mo, no need to have used them before.

standby killer

We have our TV, DVD, V-box, wifi router and modem all running through an extension into one plug socket. The lot gets turned off every night and when we’re out.

Nice detective work 🙂

God its such a chore having to switch plugs off at night. It must take me all of 3 seconds to turn mine off. Im sending an invoice to Samsung!

God its such a chore having to switch plugs off at night. It must take me all of 3 seconds to turn mine off. Im sending an invoice to Samsung!

You’re missing the point. It’s advertised as using virtually no power when you use the power switch on the TV. I know you can get the plugs that use a remote to switch it off at the mains (although why should you need to?) but the plug behind our TV is not that accessible.

So it been sitting in my living room burning 80 watts for 23 hours a day

Wow. We get 24 of them each day here in Wales…. 😉

Government cutbacks innit!

Government cutbacks innit!

🙂

Some other “gems”: a HP laser printer: 40w with occasional 120w spikes(which I had on 24/7).

Apple iPhone charger 24w with nothing plugged in.

Pest ultrasonic deterrant thingy 40w (all it does is “squeak in a way we cant hear!”)

A security light in the garage – 30w when not lit up. Turns out this is faulty and leaking to earth so is now in the bin.

Anyways I’m now saving a couple of hundred squids a year. Result :). New bike time!

All for an £8 gizmo. And a new found desire to turn stuff off!

So am I missing something – that plug… is it just like switching off the plug at the wall?!

No! It measures how much £ something is burning when it’s plugged in. On or off. Just a lazy ass multimeter really.

Don’t just standby, start saving energy with a free LIME energy saving plug worth £19.99. This intelligent plug turns your appliances off standby in one easy click via your remote control. Households in the UK now spend around 10% of their electricity bill on standby power, with the average household having up to 12 gadgets left on standby at any one time. (source: Energy Saving Trust). Leaving items on standby wastes energy and money, so start thinking ‘savings’ not ‘standby’ with a free LIME energy saving plug and you could save up to £20 on your energy bills.

So where does it measure?!

billybob -we’re talking different things.

Your’s is a doofer that turns off all power when the main power user shuts down (which interstingly wouldnt have worked with my dumb ass tv).

My doofer is similar to this (but I got mine from Lidl this week):
http://www.kenable.co.uk/product_info.php?products_id=3732

Mine doesnt “do” anything. Just shows whats burning money.

aaah that makes more sense!

well thanks to this thread I bought an energenie plug to see what the house is leaking and have just gone round everything. The total standby consumption for everything in the house except the computer is 43W (c.380kWh per year, or about £45). The worst offenders being the BT HomeHub (not technically on standby, but always on at 9W) and the HP Laserjet at 7W. But everything else seems pretty well behaved.

Been meaning to do that for ages so thanks CSWlda

Need to check the computer but means shutting down, unplugging, booting and then letting it go into standby. Will do it later.

British gas sent my dad a six way block which combines with one of your remotes to switch the power off to everything- 4 sockets always go off and 2 are selectable to stay on or go off. He didn’t need it so I’m using it and it works well, the Sky box always has power and when you put that in standby everything else is powered down.

Wow. We get 24 of them each day here in Wales….

That’s because you get all your hours as a subsidy from us and we each have to give up one a day for you lot, much the same with all your money. 🙂