Standby: how much it costs and how to eliminate it

A little red light that we pay dearly for. Sometimes unknowingly, through pure ignorance, in other cases through banal carelessness. In any case, the cost of the waste of standby It's truly gigantic. Sixty billion euros a year in the world, approximately 80 euros for each Italian family, 1 billion liters of water used to produce wasted electricity. All for nothing. But let's proceed in order. Let's see what stand-by mode is exactly and how it works. What its costs are. And what are the very simple solutions.

The most reliable accounts, made on the basis of measurements and field checks, say that this distraction, this total indifference towards waste, in the homes of Italians who are at the seaside or in Mountains, only for the month of August it costs 15 euros. A true record on an annual basis, confirming the fact that we are becoming more wasteful just when some electricity consumption, such as the use of the computer or the TV, should decrease due to the time spent away from home and away from the office. red dot, apparently harmless, in reality still involves consumption that we then pay for in our bills.

Standby is a widespread waste worldwide: it is worth 60 billion euros on the entire planet, and in our bills it can mean an increase of around 10 percent of the overall cost, with a per capita figure of around 500 euros in total. Furthermore, the energy wasted in this way is also a environmental damage considering the emissions CO2 which could instead be avoided.

According to the eErg research group at the Milan Polytechnic, leaving the kitchen on consumes the following daily energy: refrigerator 480 Wh, stereo 197 Wh, computer and printer 175 Wh, internet router 108 Wh, DVD 94 Wh. So why do we make this huge mistake? For three reasons. Ignorance: many people don't know that Standby does not mean the end of electricity consumption, but simply its reductionBad habits: it's exactly like leaving the lights on at home before going out. A lifestyle that's much less defensible today than in the past. Finally, the third reason is that the electrical and electronic appliance manufacturers have not yet fully complied with European Union regulations aimed at reducing this type of energy waste. As a result, 35 percent of appliances sold do not have the automatic standby switch required by law. But in any case, even if you don't want to change refrigerator o computer, you can do a very simple thing: buy a power strip and plug in multiple devices here. This way, you just need to press a single button and they'll all be off simultaneously, without standby. A significant saving, you'll see, on your home energy bill.

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• How to use the oven to save electricity
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