Better than a lot of people, who just don't botherr. My brother, when he had a new meter put in at home, decided to enter super anal mode and spent a while turning off / disconnecting lots of stuff. Result was a 50% reduction in consumption. But it's too easy just to leave stuff on.
It's interesting in that some things you use sparingly may take more energy in standby than in use. eg in this example (46m00):
Since the total amount of energy is small it's not a big overall part of your consumption. But it does make the point that a small number for a long time can exceed a large number for a short time.
Theo
Indeed.
The big users are electric cookers, water heaters, room heaters, washing machines, tumble dryers, gaming computers and fridge-freezers. While high standby power tends to be things like set-top boxes (but they need to stay plugged-in for recording, schedule updates, etc.
For us, a constantly on device is the home-server, but that's not as bad as I expected it might be.
Hmm. The clock on ours doesn’t tell the time, it just counts down. A lovely bit of electromechanical simplicity. It also gives a resounding “ding” at the end. ;-)
We’ve had it longer than we’ve been married. (39 years so far). I think it’s about 42 years old now.
Tim
I was at a wine party, Gen-z folks working for HR admin that would not know how to wire a plug.
Between a bunch of giggly girls the topic casually floated onto these USB sockets.
"oh, I changed all mine in the kitchen"
"put the power off, undid the screws, undid the wires, popped the new one in"
"easy, child of six can do it"
"don't pay an electrician"
How tight do ye think the connections were remade? Was there still an functioning ring?
Not all younger people are stupid even though older people like to think they are as they feel threatened. One thing I have noticed is that many younger people will turn to something like You tube where it is possible to find out how to do something ,a resource that was not around when I was their age. Obviously the information provided could be suspect but changing 13 amp outlets to those with USB sockets is one of the more common ones so viewing a few should show best practise. Where problems could arise is when the law of sod strikes where wires are too short for an easy swap or previous bodges like the wrong polarity come to light. That is when a few years of experience under the belt becomes useful in both recognising and solving issues.
GH
Why would any one know how to wire a plug, let alone select the correct fuse. I suspect 99% have never needed this skill. By law, since 1987 so almost 30 years ago, everything you buy must come with plug pre-fitted.
So its a rare event one needs replacing. Even when it does, for many pieces of equipment, the lead is an IEEE type with a "C" series socket at the appliance end. If you don't have a spare, and who doesn't, replacement leads are available from Amazon or E-bay in some cases for less than a 13AMP plug...
.. and speaking of 13Amp plugs most are moulded to the lead, so you really need a decent set of cutters/strippers to remove and replace a plug, why would you have these to hand, if you seldom use them..
Who knows, but its one of the things you are permitted to do.
Dave
It's not being stupid, it's being ignorant of many things we needed to know but they don't. The country is a great deal wealthier now, and many things are thrown away rather than repaired, and of course cheapness of manufacture means that many things can't be repaired. Things have also become more reliable generally. When I started driving, I'd generally get half a dozen punctures a year, so I learned quickly how to change a wheel. Today, there is no spare wheel and no tools supplied anyway.
Because people haven't grown up fixing things, they will immediately turn to a tradesman rather than enter a whole new world. Those who do try to take the plunge often do the best they can, but lack fundamental knowledge.
The government doesn't help in self-sufficiency, for obvious reasons. Appliances have come with moulded 13A plugs for decades, so very few know how to wire a plug. What used to be a necessary skill for any non-rich adult would also help somewhat with fixed wiring. Of course now it's illegal to do all but the simplest fixed-wiring job, and even replacing a standard socket with one with USB might be argued in court not to be a like-for-like replacement.
Indeed, and if you don't start gaining that experience you will never have it.
+1. I have been handed down the family heirloom Readers Digest Guide to DIY, which was the bible of the 1970s. It's neat to flick through, but I've barely opened it - YT is better in almost all regards.
It also helps to have enough of a resource of bits to dig you out of the inevitable hole. If the wires are too short, you can just Wago to make them longer - if you know that Wagos exist and you have one on hand. Otherwise it generates a lot of trips to the DIY store as you have to solve each hole in turn.
Plus it's useful to know that your options for resolving the problem might be A, B, C but you know that C is the quickest/neatest/etc. A DIY peril is it's easy to come up with elaborate solution D that's 'nice' but takes 5x as long/as much money to do.
Theo
In article snipped-for-privacy@jrenewsid.jretrading.com>, Joe snipped-for-privacy@jretrading.com scribeth thus
Well we have installed some lightning earth systems and that small kink in the down conductor usually going around the gutter presents quite a bit of inductance to the discharge.
As to unplugging the TV aerial lead not a bad idea as by the time its got that far its likely to have arced elsewhere and damaged something else and even then your aerial might get a sideswipe not as strong as a direct hit, in a previous time i have seen aerials melt then the cable vaporise!
Its not done to fit lightning earth systems to domestic buildings here others like office blocks and hospitals factories yes and there are calculators around for that.
I've got a system here just needs finalising before the warmer weather starts;). Got some nice old gear that needs taking care of, I've actually got an Audiolab 8000 amp that was in a strike elsewhere more cleaning up then a repair that was!..
Aren't you all fibre there now?..
That was when I was living on the Fens, Tony. About 1987... I wstill have a copper phone circuit, though for how much longer...
A belated follow up to this: the technical specification
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