Design Practice 1 - Stamp it // Standby power research

As i have decide to focus on a topic that i think is ignored significantly when it comes to people making changes in the world. Stand by power is the power an electrical product draws even while it is turned off. 

I have found an article on the BBC's Flagship technology programme, it explains the problem with leaving electrical products on standby as well as giving some shocking statistics of the cost and CO2 emissions that are produced from leaving products on standby in the UK alone. - Article found HERE

 

• 'Ultimately, using your remote control can use more power than getting off your backside and pressing the buttons yourself.'

It seems that PC's are one of the leading problems when it comes to power wastage. Most people don't know how much power their PC uses even when it is totally switched off, the only way power consumption can be stopped completely is to unplug the PC at the wall. The power used differs depending on the model of power supply.

• "If a million PC users switched to a more efficient power supply, it would save almost the equivalent of 250 thousand litres of gasoline a day."  
• 'No matter how easy these devices make our lives there is little doubt that they are costing us and the planet dearly. '
• 'By the end of 2004 there were 820 million PCs in use around the world, and by 2007 that will top a billion, according to the Computer Industry Almanac.'  
• "If a million PC users switched to a more efficient power supply, it would save almost the equivalent of 250 thousand litres of gasoline a day."  

Main statistics

UK adds up to 3.1 million tonnes of CO2 emissions per year, just from leaving electrical products on stand by.

I know for a fact that some people never turn off their electrical products, whether it be for speeds sake, laziness or just lack of knowledge on the subject. I know maybe it isn't the first/ most important element that needs to be changed when it comes to global climate issues. However if the solution to a problem is as easy as turning off a product at the mains instead of just using the remote to turn it off then it might provoke more response than a topic which does effect peoples lives more.

Opposing argument

i found this other article from the Guardian click HERE, which claims that stand by power actually makes very little difference to CO2 emissions, he does tests, and finds that leaving a phone charge plugged in for 380 days would still not produce the equivalent amount of energy than running a bath one time would produce.

This means technically stand by power definitely not the leading cause of global warming and there are major elements that need to be changed as well to improve global warming, but I still believe that all this energy is still wasted every day for no reason, In the words of Tesco 'Every little helps'.

After further research I found an American website called Standy by, it has statistics and information about standby power in America - however the figures given are based on most developed countries and not just America,

They give information saying in an average home there are around 40 electrical products that are constantly drawing power from the mains.  this obviously this is just an average, many houses will hold considerably more or less products

I found out there are around 22.5 million occupied homes in Great Britain 

so therefore at any given time in the UK alone there is on average, 900 million electrical products running on standyby power, and many of these products will be switched off, the owner completely unaware that so many products in there house are constantly costing money and wasting power.