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Tories want to ban 'standby' function?


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Old 09-09-2007, 19:24
gwynne
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One of the Tories energy saving ideas is to eliminate the 'standby' function on electronic equipment!
Question is-can it work?
Can you imagine having to reprogramme various bits of equipment every time you switch on from 'cold'?
Is this yet another example of politicians opening their mouths without really understanding what they are talking about?
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Old 09-09-2007, 21:07
dunscombe2000
 
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A very low-power stand-by circuit can be made. It costs very little but would reduce profits. So there would need to be a public demand for such a feature.

I think this is a good example of the real nature of the publics "concern" about global warming etc.

Stand-by power has been a media issue for a while, and yet how many people really give a monkeys?
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Old 09-09-2007, 21:25
ntlhellworld
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Tories want to ban 'standby' function?
Yes, and I want to ban tories, but it isnt going to happen

-Chris
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Old 09-09-2007, 21:27
Carmen Queasy
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Well, PVRs would be useless if they just powered off rather than going into standby.

Instead of banning, perhaps send out little leaflets saying "turning off at the power will save you £X per year, great, ey?"
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Old 09-09-2007, 21:53
Nigel Goodwin
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Can you imagine having to reprogramme various bits of equipment every time you switch on from 'cold'?
Is this yet another example of politicians opening their mouths without really understanding what they are talking about?
More a question of posters doing just that!

Anything decently designed won't require 'reprogramming' just because it was turned off, only the cheapest nastiest VCR's did that!.
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Old 09-09-2007, 22:39
Chris Simon
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Stand-by power has been a media issue for a while, and yet how many people really give a monkeys?
Well I do! I've *never* used standby modes on anything even before it hit the headlines except when doing timed events, and everything gets switched off when not in use. However, I always come under fire from others who say that Sky boxes etc should never be switched off as it reduces their life and the power saved by doing it is negligible. It's all still unproved as far as I'm concerned about the life expectancy, but it would actually be nice if *everyone* took part on an experiment over a year to switch everything off overnight, see how much power is saved over the country as a whole, and also then prove either way if there is a noticeable difference in the number of equipment failures. The problem is, it's all talk at the moment and no-one is actually doing it. so yes, I suppose what I'm saying in a roundabout sort of way is that you're right, most people *don't* give a monkeys!

In a way, I *almost* agree with the Tories suggestion. (It's against my principles to agree with them!) Forcing people to do things either with a carrot or with a stick, via legislation, is usually the only way that change can come about. But it needs to be thought about carefully which items of equipment would beneift from no standby function and where it would make no sense whatsoever. Legislation on power consumption would be a good start.
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Old 09-09-2007, 22:47
JimRockford
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It's counter productive. Fully powering down your equipment on a daily basis will shorten it's overall life, thus meaning you have to buy a new one in a shorter space of time= more landfills of non biodegradable junk.
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Old 09-09-2007, 22:59
Aspartame
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Some equipment, such as PVRs and the like can't be powered down at the wall. If they banned standby, people would just have to leave the machines fully on, which would result in more energy use.
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Old 09-09-2007, 23:29
Chris Simon
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It's counter productive. Fully powering down your equipment on a daily basis will shorten it's overall life, thus meaning you have to buy a new one in a shorter space of time= more landfills of non biodegradable junk.
Does anyone have any figures for the average life of a Sky box?
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Old 09-09-2007, 23:32
Chris Simon
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Some equipment, such as PVRs and the like can't be powered down at the wall. If they banned standby, people would just have to leave the machines fully on, which would result in more energy use.
As I mentioned, it needs thought as to which items it makes sense to do it with.
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Old 09-09-2007, 23:51
Carmen Queasy
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I'd be easier if equipment came with a proper "turn off" switch. My older TVs have this, along with a standby button, but the newer ones can only be put into standby or turned off at the socket.

With the amount of items needing to be plugged in, most people probably have extensions and it's pretty impractical to turn everything connected to them off.
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Old 09-09-2007, 23:53
DocumentaryFan
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Since the EU is a single market (including in the area of consumer electronics), I can't see country-specific legislation like this going anywhere. It would have to be a EU-wide initiative.
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Old 09-09-2007, 23:59
Elojikal
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Is this yet another example of politicians opening their mouths without really understanding what they are talking about?
Actually more of an example of Joe Public not having a clue what they are talking about - and their usual reactionary I WON'T BE TOLD WHAT TO DO BY THE POLITICIANS angst.

When you turn your computer off (I'm going on the assumption that you do turn you computer off) it doesn't go into standby yet you don't have to input the correct time everytime you turn it back on do you? That's because the computer has a small battery inside it with a very long life that allows the storage of the date and time. There is no reason why TVs, PVRs and so on can't have low power consumption modes (there are any number of ways of achieving this) or long life batterys inside them that allow the storage of basic recording time information. Most standby modes simply cut the audio/video output but are otherwise fully on. There's no need for that.
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Old 10-09-2007, 00:28
Caxton
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When I put my TV on standby I will think of all the companies and shops wasting power by keeping millions of unwanted lights on completely unnecessarily. Just look at the local shops offices and supermarkets and one could see adequately with half the lights and all illuminated outside advertising signs swiched off.

Look at all the power wasted playing that damn awful noise in shops with so called singers in acute pain howling in agony and playing tuneless music over the tannoy systems. Another very worthwhile saving if switched off

I think of all that as I put my TV in standby and then think why worry.
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Old 10-09-2007, 00:59
JimRockford
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Does anyone have any figures for the average life of a Sky box?
Mine's still working after 8 years.
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Old 10-09-2007, 09:38
Chris Simon
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Mine too. And probably using 20% of the power of most other ones.

It's my second one though, the first one took a lightning strike and wasn't too happy after that.
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Old 10-09-2007, 09:59
Kojack
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As mentioned by a couple of people a lower cost standby option would have to be found, battery or what ever, otherwise if we no longer have standby functions & people want to record stuff on late at night when they are asleep or away from home then they will just leave the recorders on all the time instead, how cost effective would that be then.
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Old 10-09-2007, 10:22
pcbbc
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Question is-can it work?
No - It's the most ill thought out proposal I have ever heard.

It would probably end up using more power, rather than less.
Consider a VCR or DVD player without standby. People just leave such appliances on 24x7 regardless.

Much better, as has already been suggested, to enforce strict limits on power use during standby. Also a mandatory auto standby feature, either based on period of inactivity or PIR sensors.
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Old 10-09-2007, 11:55
broadz
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Also a mandatory auto standby feature, either based on period of inactivity or PIR sensors.
The trouble with auto-standby after a period of inactivity is how does a Sky box know whether it is active or not? Twice I've had my Sky HD box switch itself off during the night when I was watching one of the movie channels - because it thought "It's the middle of the night, nothing is recording, nobody has changed channel or pressed any buttons on the remote for an hour or so, he must have gone to bed, I'd better go into standby." Then, by the time you find the remote and switch the thing back on you can't rewind to watch the twenty seconds or so that you have missed because the box has gone into standby and lost its auto-rewind stuff.
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Old 10-09-2007, 12:19
tellytart1
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Hmm, the wrong end of the stick has been grabbed by the OP. The tories don't want to ban the standby mode.

Quote from BBC News Website:
"The policy group - chaired by ex-environment secretary John Gummer and prospective Tory MP Zac Goldsmith - says household goods which exceed energy limits should be banned from sale in the UK.

It suggests that products with standby lights which stay on permanently should also be outlawed, and a labelling system should be introduced to help consumers compare the energy usage of electrical products."

They want products in standby mode to use as little power as possible - running a standby light is a bit pointless - and uses energy.
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Old 10-09-2007, 12:26
gomezz
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running a standby light is a bit pointless - and uses energy.
How many years do all the standby lights in the country need to be on to use the same amount of energy as it took for them to publicise this proposal?
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Old 10-09-2007, 12:31
tellytart1
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True - but I think the point was being made that they want manufacturers to make standby mode a "true" low power mode. There are lots of items currently on the market that still use their full rated power drain even when in "standby" mode.

There are a lot of freeview boxes that do this trick.

PC's really do use very little power when you shut them down but leave the mains connected. All that's running is a small 5v supply to the motherboard so that it can detect when you press the power switch, which in turn powers up the rest of the PSU and computer.
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Old 12-09-2007, 14:25
nl74
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The difference is that the tories want to ban standby whereas labour will likely not ban it but grab the opportunity to introduce a standby tax whilst at the same time removing the ability to completely switch off our TV's and thus forcing us to use standby.

Could even be a metaphor for the motor car......


/puts soapbox away
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Old 12-09-2007, 17:19
streekie
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GOD YEAH !
then we will have to put up with a "standby tzar" and no doubt have people with clipboards looking thru your windows like the council do with the recycling bins.
You probably cant expect these things to be reverse engineered to accomodate such a change but they could put pressure on manufacturers to come up with lower power solutions to standby, I know its not exactly the same thing but it annoys me how much microsoft crap has just preloaded on this pc just in case i might want to use it and all that does is slows things down. All the sky + needs is a low power scheduler watchdog type affair, would have to spin up a couple of mins in advance of prog start though methinks
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Old 12-09-2007, 18:03
coopermanyorks
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My new Samsung Lcd only goes into standby when the on / off button is pressed

Is there a good reason for that ?
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