leaving electrical appliances on all night

[toffee]

my kids have portable tvs which sometimes I put on a timer so they can watch a programme at bed time.
The tvs are on brackets on the wall and they cannot reach them to switch them on or off themselves.

They do have remotes and so if I leave them on standby, it means if they want to watch something in the morning or after school or what ever, I dont need to keep going in and switching them back on again.

So, they are on standby a lot of the time.We were also given an old video which stays on all of the time.

I have been told that it isnt safe to leave them on all the time. Does this just apply to tv's?

and also, when my mam visits, she always goes on at me to unplug my hairdryer when Im not using it.

I leave my coffee maker plugged in when its switched off, and lamps and things.

Is it really necessary to go round unplugging everything when you go away for a few days? will switching things off not do?

I know this isnt a 'how to' wire something up question but I thought some one here would be able to answer.
thanks in anticipation

 

[towman]

Apart from the environmental issues of standby power consumption, I prefer to turn off appliances "properly" if I can - switch off and if possible/practical unplug them. I've had a kettle that had a meltdown in the kitchen whilst I was out - never did find out why the fault developed - it was off at the on/off switch but still plugged in with power on , but the mess and stink was something else. Ever since I've always checked and switched off as much stuff as possible. Faults do develop, things get moved - particularly with kids around!
Having seen some of the cheap electrical rubbish coming in from the far east and the dodgy quality control procedures I'd be even more wary of leaving things switched on if they don't need to be.

 

[ban-all-sheds]

There should be no safety issues with leaving TVs etc on standby, but they use a horrific amount of energy.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/4620350.stm

http://www.ncc.org.uk/policy/sustainable-jan05.pdf#search="+standby +appliances +consumption"

http://www-g.eng.cam.ac.uk/impee/topics/DomesticEnergy/files/Domestic Energy v2 PPT.ppt

 

[crystal ball]

A former colleague has a nightly ritual of un-plugging every appliance in the house ever since a VCR burst into flames in the early hours

 

[RF Lighting]

I only know of one appliance having caused a problem.

Incidently it was a cheap kettle left plugged in, which caught fire and gutted the kitchen.

I would have thought you will be ok leaving stuff on standby, but if you want total piece of mind you'd be best unplugging things.

Modern electrical installations are far safer than they used to be, with MCBs and RCDs, and gone are the days of the BBC message reminding you to unplug your television set.

 

[Taylortwocities]

BBC should remind you to unplug your TV set every time Eastenders comes on. How depressing is that programme these days?

 

[big-all]

i have done a consumption test on on all the tellys and videos in my house[4 tvs 3 tv videos and 2 videos]

they range from 3% [jvc video] to 30% [beiko 21" tv] on stanby the average being 17%

so if you work ot the average consumption off all the tvs and videos in my house is around 60 w in use x 9 =540w so 17% is around 92w an hour x24 = 2.2 units times 30 =66 units x 12= 790 units a year on standby x say 9p per unit =£71
so you will understand why i dont leave them on standby and turn them "off" at the appliance

 

[toffee]

thank you ...

 

[Steve]

out of interest, we get electric at 5.5 pence per unit

 

[big-all]

i am with powergen duel on line think i pay about 7p now but not shure who are you with crafty