My finger is on the button
Posted by Stephen Millward, 29 December 2009 09:49:54
I frequently have to remind my family not to leave lights and gadgets on when not required. Last night my 7 year old caught me out when I left the TV on standby. My defence was that TV standby was less than 1 watt and that it's the games consoles and set-top boxes which have the high standby cost. I also tried to point out that putting the TV on standby was much better than just leaving it on and walking out of the room.
Needless to say, I think I lost the argument, but when I got up this morning I found that my teenagers had left the kitchen lights on all night!
Trying to be energy efficient in a busy family home is difficult because everyone has to do the right thing. I know that our energy consumption will increase over the Christmas break and so I'll try and implement some measures to reduce wastage. These will include timers on Christmas lights, timers on the wi-fi and broadband router and powerdown sockets which automatically switch off home entertainment peripherals when the TV is turned off.
However, the most effective way to reduce wastage is just to turn things off when they're not required. My challenge is to get the family doing just that. I'll let you know how I get on, in the new year.