William provided good answers. As for life expectancy, a
cold power up or from standby means the same components do a
complete 100% power up. There is no stress reduction on power
up from standby. AND that stress from powerup becomes (for
all practical purposes) mythical once we apply more numbers.

Standby tends to draw about 7 watts constantly waiting for
you to make a decision. 7 watts is the difference between
standby and a cold powerdown - see manufacturer datasheet for
a more accurate number. If the discussion with that
government representative did not provide that number, then
you were both wasting time. Without numbers, then the
discussion could only resort to wild speculation.

Greg wrote:
Hello,

I have become embroiled in a discussion with government
representatives from many agencies about whether or not items such as
TVs, VCRs, DVDs etc should be turned off to conserve electricity as
opposed to leaving them turned on in standby mode.

Can someone PLEASE tell me why standby mode is used?

Why should such appliances be left in standby mode instead of turned
off?

If the appliance is turned off instead of being put into standby mode,
will the appliance's life be shortened, by how much and why?

I have seen sums on the energy savings if appliances are turned off
instead of being placed in standby, but I suspect that there is more
than this than meets the eye.