Sust-it Blog

There seems to be an urban myth surrounding how much electricity your TVs and Hi-Fi’s consume in standby. The latest Flat-screen TVs, DVD players consume less power in standby (0.6w or costing 63p per year to run) than some of the Standby Savers themselves (1w or £1.05 per year to run). Infact, the most energy hungry equipment under your television are the Satellite / Digital Set-Top Box and DVD/VHS hard disc recorders, which you’re not meant to switch off anyway – as they update programme schedules and software in the wee hours, or have clocks.

So what’s the payback on standby savers? If you plug in four boxes all consuming 0.6 watts = £2.52 less (running the standby saver) £1.05 = £1.47 per year. Cost to buy the standby saver £21.95 payback nearly 15 years!

Here are some simple energy saving tips that don’t cost a mint

When replacing Electricals or Appliances buy the most energy efficient ones you can afford and make huge savings long-term!

Shutdown your PC when not in use and switch off at the wall, as some computers and peripherals still draw power even when off!

How much electricity do standby savers save a year, running costs of standby saver.

Somewhat ironically, after just taking a pop at the Bosch’s advertising campaign, I have heard that sust-it.net has been shortlisted for an award for the Best Campaign in advertising industry’s high-profile Green Awards. Without funding or sponsorship sust-it.net has managed to gain a good deal of PR, which is crucial in driving users to the site. Let’s keep our fingers crossed for the awards night.

The planet is very fragile; our limited energy resources are becoming increasingly scarce; and the cost of this energy is surging.

These are the opening lines from the Bosch Planet Savers competition website; so, what do you win if you enter this fantastic planet saving competition? Yep, that great planet saving prize of a long-haul flight to Florida to watch the space shuttle take off! Let’s hope your Bosch appliance lasts long enough to offset all those carbon emissions you contribute to and witness on the trip – bon voyage!

PS I would recommend Bosch consider recycling their Ad agency

Bosch’s planet savers advertising campaign

Sust-it is continually looking to refine our energy efficacy database to reflect which products are the best. Fridges and freezers are one area where being small had a major impact on where the products appeared in our energy saving rankings – which was misleading. We’ve now addressed this issue by comparing the electricity consumptions with the actual storage capacity of the fridges and freezers. This allows you to compare the cost per cubic foot of refrigeration storage space and identify those real performance stars.

Top energy savers fridges and freezers include:

Upright Fridges – Miele K9554IDF
Undercounter Fridges – Liebherr KTPES1554
Larder Fridges – Liebherr KB4260
Undercounter Larder Fridges – Liebherr KTPES1750
Fridge Freezers – Smeg FAB40X
Upright Freezers – Whirlpool AFG8131
Frost Free Fridge Freezers – Hotpoint RTM70S
Chest Freezers – Liebherr GTP4726
American Style Fridge Freezers – AEG SANTO 75578KG1

I must admit the rush for flat screen TV has confused me. Firstly, there was the issue of picture quality as the early LCD screens were rubbished compared to a good tube CRT screen. Plasma screens seemed to have the edge on picture quality, with a more natural look and better blacks. However, their major drawback for the energy conscious is that they consume more energy in certain conditions.

Secondly, the issue of what ‘HD ready’ means compared to a ‘Genuine HD’ telly, or “1080p” as it is referred to now. So you’ve got a ‘HD ready’ telly, does this mean you will get full high definition images on it? Sorry! NO. Yes, you will get a higher resolution picture than a standard TV, if you have FREESAT HD, SKY HD or a Blu-Ray player, however you will not be getting the full picture that’s being broadcast! Why? Because your ‘HD ready’ TV only has to be able to show a higher definition picture than a standard TV. FREESAT and SKY HD channels are broadcast at 1920 x 1080 pixel Resolution, and your ‘HD ready’ telly may only be 1024 x 768 pixel. Have consumers been sold short? We think so. And where do most people put their nice flat TVs? In the corner of the room, so where are the space saving benefits!

So would I buy the new Panasonic HDTV with its built-in FREESAT receiver? Yes – it’s 1080p, so you will be experiencing genuine High definition programming, that’s good news – plus no subscription too. It’s Plasma, so the picture should be good. Drawbacks, it uses four times more power than my old telly and I can’t record any HD programmes. So I’m holding back until you can get a LED telly (that use less power) with a built in PVR recorder.

How many packets walkers’ crisp equals a days viewing of a 52” telly? According to Walkers Co2 labelling, 75g of Co2 goes into the atmosphere for every packet of crisps they produce. So how many crisps would the average couch potato have to eat to equal a days viewing of their 52” LCD telly? A staggering 10 packets! Which will cost you approximately £4 in crisps or 28p worth of electricity.

The simple answer to this is just by adding a button that’s called ECO; the catch? It’s going to take you 8 hours to dry anything! By which time it’s stopped raining and you could have dried it all outside.

Should this White Knight machine be described as an ‘A’ labelled tumble dryer? We don’t think so, as its normal 2 hours cycle rates it as ‘C’ in Energy Efficiency. Creative copywriting springs to mind.

We are constantly improving the functionality of our site, which is hopefully making it easier for you to choose the best energy saving electricals. The latest addition to the site is our ‘TOP ENERGY SAVERS’. These products have been carefully selected from our database for their overall electricity saving performance and efficiency. This makes comparing the most energy efficient products even easier.

The facility to compare the costs of buying each of the products in our database has also been enabled using Kelkoo’s Price Comparison website. So saving both energy and money should be even easier!

In some ways I’m pleased that Sony has won the latest format wars. Why? Because they should’ve won the first format war of JVC’s VHS tape format with Betamax. The Sony tape format was far superior and became the backbone of the professional video production industry for over 25 years as the BetaCam derivative.

So what has the cost been to the environment? The good news is that this HD format war has been won quickly and high definition player sales have so far, been disappointing. The bad news is that there could be over 50,000 units sold in Europe – all potentially destined to be dumped. Let’s hope they all get recycled!

Walk in to any electrical shop in the UK and you will struggle to see a Washing Machine that’s not A rated for energy efficiency. It’s a pity that does not apply to tumble dryers as Hotpoint V3D01 (and others) are still producing a machine with an F rating! What’s even more surprising, is that when we tried to track down the energy consumption figures from their website, it quotes a figure of 3.73 kWh/cycle – which could potentially cost £172 a year to run! Not bad for a £140 tumble dryer.

More research at our local Curry’s reveals a figure of 2.73 kWh/cycle, according to its energy efficiency label (F rated), while at Comets’ superstore the same model is labelled as a ‘D’ rated at 1.89 kWh/cycle. Confused? Which is correct? Watch this space!