Putting a machine on standby is like making it stay in the pool treading water rather than letting it get out and have a relaxing post-swim sit-down.

It means it’ll carry on burning energy - and devices like set-top boxes and video recorders burn almost as much on standby as they do when they’re in action. Machines are sneaky suckers.

The only sure-fire way to stop Sucking Machines from guzzling electricity is to turn them off at the mains – that or smash them to smithereens with a baseball bat, which is a daft way to go about things.

Turning our Sucking Machines off standby would save enough electricity to power 1.2 million homes - so do your bit for the planet by switching everything you’re not using off at the mains.

And if you’re determined to use your baseball bat for something, employ it as a handy ‘switch-flicking’ device to save you bending down to the plug socket. Who said going green had to be hard on your knees?

More info from the Green Thing Wiki >>

Why? Tell you why….

If someone buzzes up to you and asks why you’re bothering to Turn Off Those Sucking Machines, don’t get tongue-tied. Zap back with one of these electric comebacks:

1. With all my standby lights on, my lounge looks like a red-light district for pornographic pixies
2. As P.T. Barnum once said, “there’s a sucker born every minute”
3. Because I am Neo - although you can call me The One
4. If electricity comes from electrons, does morality come from morons?
5. Suck off you sucking suckwit

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