In article ,
geoff writes:

or not ...

someone talking sense at last

http://www.withouthotair.com/

I haven't read it, but I notice that most appliances with a
standby mode are now micro power consumption, which can be
left plugged in without any significant load. My most recent
Nokia phone charger falls into this category.

The items which aren't seem to be those which are UK-specific
such as cable and set-top boxes. This is probably because we
don't have any requirement for micro power consumption in
standby mode, whereas many other countries now do, and in
order to sell a product internationally, it's now pretty
much an essential requirement.

I did a check on a number of LCD monitors and laptop power
supplies a year ago. Monitors (HP) were all marked Tco'03
which requires very low standby power consumption,
although the monitors were all very much lower than even
that standard requires. The Toshiba PSU's didn't claim any
such low standby power consumption, but they too were
insignificant (both well below 1W). So neither were worth
recommending staff to bother switching off.

Leaving a laptop PSU connected to a laptop with a battery
in it causes significant standby power draw though, even
when the battery is fully charged.

--
Andrew Gabriel
[email address is not usable -- followup in the newsgroup]