Carbon saved by turning off machines off standby, unplugging chargers and turning off lights
A great deal of energy is wasted in the home, often invisibly in the background, through appliances left on standby and chargers being left plugged in without any devices attached, as well as lights left on. Machines like TVs, DVD players, games consoles and computers left on standby might not look like they're using a lot of energy, but the small amounts of power can soon add up to a substantial amount when left on for hours at a time, day after day, and result in 4 million tonnes of CO2 emissions every year, wasting almost £800 million worth of energy.
So turning things off is as good for our energy bills as it is for the environment.
Carbon saved by turning things off:
Standby and chargers:
Around 400 kWh are wasted each year from devices and gadgets left on standby, or chargers left plugged in.
Using our grid electricity conversion factor of 0.527 kg CO2 per kWh
, this translates to CO2 emissions of:
400 x 0.527 = 210.8 kg CO2 per year or
= 0.58 kg CO2 per day.
Lights
Turning off all lights when they are not being used, and turning them off early will save around 1.3 kg CO2 per day, as previously calculated by Green Thing.
So the total saved per day by turning things off is:
1.3 kg + 0.58 kg = 1.88 kg CO2 per day.
Footnotes
