Why standby power deserves your attention

Standby power is the electricity your gadgets draw when they are switched "off" but still plugged in and waiting for a signal. It is the little red light on the television, the clock on the microwave, the games console humming quietly in the corner at midnight, the printer that has not printed anything since March. Individually each of these loads is tiny, often somewhere between half a watt and 20 watts. Together, across a typical UK home, they can account for roughly 5 to 10 per cent of your electricity use.

At around 24p per kilowatt-hour, that is not pocket change. A single device drawing 10 watts non-stop uses about 88 kilowatt-hours a year, which is roughly £21. Find half a dozen of those around the house and you have quietly funded a decent weekend away. The good news is that standby is one of the easiest things to tackle, because most of it is pure habit rather than genuine need.

Find your worst offenders

Before you buy anything, spend ten minutes walking round your home after dark with the lights off. Every glowing light is a clue. The usual suspects in British homes are remarkably consistent:

• Set-top boxes and streaming devices — many stay warm and semi-awake to record, update or respond instantly.
• Games consoles — "instant on" and rest modes can draw 10 watts or more, all day, every day.
• Televisions — larger sets often draw 0.5 to 3 watts in standby, plus more if quick-start features are enabled.
• Smart speakers and displays — always listening, always drawing a watt or two.
• Desktop computers, monitors and printers — frequently left on standby for days at a time.
• Chargers left plugged in with nothing attached — newer ones waste very little, but the sockets add up.
• Microwaves, ovens and coffee machines with permanently lit digital clocks.

One important exception: your broadband router and any mesh nodes should generally be left on. They use a modest amount of power, and switching them off nightly causes more disruption than it saves.

Smart power strips and timer plugs

This is where a small purchase earns its keep. A master–slave extension lead is the simplest option: plug the television into the master socket and the console, soundbar and streaming box into the slave sockets, and when the television goes off, everything else loses power automatically. No willpower required.

Other options worth knowing about:

• Switched extension leads — cheap, effective, and ideal for desk setups.
• Timer plugs — good for devices you want off overnight but on during the day.
• Smart plugs — let you schedule off periods and often show how much energy each device uses, which is genuinely eye-opening.

A few sensible cautions. Keep total load within the plug's rating, never daisy-chain extension leads, and do not put fridges, freezers, washing machines, tumble dryers or anything with a heating element on a timer plug. Those appliances need to run on their own schedule.

Small habits that cost nothing

You can capture most of the savings without spending a penny. The trick is to attach the new habit to something you already do, so it sticks.

• Do a two-minute round before bed. Switch off the television, console, printer and desk sockets at the wall. Once it becomes routine, you will notice when you forget.
• Turn off instant-on modes. In console and television settings, look for power-saving, eco or quick-start options and disable the quick-start one.
• Set computers to sleep after 15 to 20 minutes of inactivity, and shut them down properly at the end of the day.
• Group your chargers onto one switched strip so a single flick deals with all of them.
• Treat the printer as a sometimes-appliance. It does not need to be ready at 3am.

Look at settings, not just switches

Many devices hide a deeper sleep state in their menus. Soundbars, set-top boxes and televisions often have an "eco" or "deep standby" option that cuts consumption dramatically while keeping the essentials working. Check the automatic power-off timer too, and set it to something short. Firmware updates occasionally reset these preferences, so it is worth glancing at them once or twice a year.

It also helps to think in terms of rooms rather than devices. The living room corner, the home office and the teenagers' bedrooms are usually where the watts quietly pile up. Sorting those three areas captures the bulk of the waste.

Make it stick and measure the difference

Measure, then celebrate. Many UK libraries lend plug-in energy monitors, and your smart meter's in-home display or app will show how your baseload drops once you start switching things off. Take a meter reading before and after a month of new habits and compare.

Realistically, a household that gets this right can save somewhere between £30 and £80 a year, with the bigger figure coming from homes with several consoles and a permanently warm set-top box. That is a modest sum, but it is the cheapest energy you will ever buy — the kind you never generate, never pay for and never have to worry about. And once the routine is in place, it takes seconds a day. If neighbours are curious about your new switched strips, share the tip: this is exactly the sort of small, practical change that adds up across a whole street.