How much does it REALLY cost to leave your TV on standby all the time?

LEAVING your television on standby is the done thing nowadays – but just how much is it costing you?

While your box only burns through a tiny amount of power when the screen is blank, the annual bill it racks up may well surprise you.

GettyLeaving your telly on standby all the time adds a few pennies to your energy bill[/caption]

According to energy advice blog EcoCostSavings, a modern TV uses around 58.6 watts when operational and 1.3 watts when on standby.

In terms of power consumption, it ranges between 10W to 117W when in use versus 0.5W to 3W when on standby.

Clearly then, leaving your telly on standby is hardly going to burn through your paycheque every month.

According to EcoCostSavings, doing so will cost the average consumer roughly £12 ($16) every year. That’s about 3.2 pence per day.

That lines up with previous calculations on the average annual cost of a telly left on standby.

Recent research from energy supplier Utilita, for instance, estimated the cost to be around £16.24 ($21.76) a year – or roughly 4.4p a day.

If you’re a real penny pincher, you’ll have to turn your telly off at the wall in order to save yourself the energy it uses on standby.

That’s because nowadays TVs often don’t make it easy for you to switch them off.

Back in the day, each set had a big power button but now everything is done through the remote control, which usually only offers you standby mode.

Utilita also revealed that the average UK home has 10 items left plugged in and switched off despite not being used.

It’s estimated that around 30 per cent of households leave items on standby that they haven’t used in a year or more.

TVs and gaming consoles are said to be among the worst offenders, adding extra pennies to your bills with every hour they’re left in rest mode.

But plenty more appliances and gadgets may also be adding to your bills without you even realising.

They include baby monitors, smart speakers, printers and your smartphone chargers.

Utilita said that leaving everyday items on standby could be costing people hundreds of pounds a year.

GettyThe average box costs an estimated £12 to £16 to run on standby year-round[/caption]

In other news, iPhone owners in the UK have had a £750 payout from Google snatched from them by the UK’s highest court.

Google Chrome users are being warned to delete the browser amid fears highly sensitive data is being harvested.

Facebook has announced that it’s changing its name to “Meta”.

The company is working to create lifelike avatars of its users that they can control in a virtual world called the “metaverse”.

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