h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

"TVs are rarely switched on at the unit"

This seems to be a very large sweeping statement. I don't know *anyone* who leaves the tv on standby. The only people I ever met who used to was a couple of flat-sharing blokes, maybe that is the 'breed' that leaves the tv on all the time. Or maybe it's just that I know mostly families who are perhaps more concerned about cash. Who knows?

"larger cabinets are purchased to accommodate larger TV's,"

Larger TV's whats? Stray ' there I feel.

Some of the punctuation on the Rules is confusing - they seem to cvary between semi-colons, full-stops, or nothing at all. Should they all be the same? This includes the bullets, which vary as well.

It is acceptable English to put an apostrophe in TV's as the plural of TV. The apostrophe indicates the omission of letters between V and s since TV is short for television. But the house rules say we don't it that way here.

I didn't know that! We learn something new every day. But it should be the same throughout the entry though. It's either in them all, or none.

Mina,
When I moved to Europe in 1998 was the first time I ever encountered a tv with a standby. I thought it was the silliest thing that you had to get up push the button on the tv b4 you could turn it on with the remote control.

In the Caribbean (where I'm from) and I believe the same to be true in america (as that's where we import most electronic stuff), the tv is either on or off. If its off, it can be turned on from the remote control. If you want it more off than that, you have to pull the plug.

So if Ice Queen is american, she may have been thinking about the american type tv when she wrote the article.

Also, at my current house in the UK, the tv is always on standby. Its never switched off (or on) from th unit.

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I recommend that you turn off the television when you are not using it, and not leave it on standby. If your television does not have a separate on/off switch, I recommend you turn it off at the socket or unplug it.

Any electrical device can be a source of fire if there is any fault in it, and this can happen when the TV is in standby mode just as much as when it is turned on. If the system is turned off, the chance of fire is less, and if it is unplugged there is almost no chance of it causing a fire.

...and can I add that it is consuming power (if only to detect the "on" signal from the remote) and so is wasting your electricity whilst in this state.

Well the fire hazard is a valid point I don't think it falls into the category of 'unacceptable risk'.

The power consumption is probably minimal.

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I believe it's about 1/3 of the power normally consumed by the telly while on. But that's old statistics and may be not true any more.
While minimal it's still some anyhow and imo is still a waste of electricity.
Feel free to ignore us anyway. I'm quite happy to pay a lower electricity bill

http://www.eccj.or.jp/pressrelease/eng/000802_1.html

I've just found this, apparently a TV on standby will consume 21 kWh per year (on average) per household (about £3 a year). Not a lot indeed. Apparently the highest on standby household consumer is a VCR. at 96 kWh per year.
Make of that what you will

I don't care if it's only £3. It's mine, and I don't want to give it to the leccy company!

Its my £3 and I spend it on not having to get up and turn on the tv at the unit.
That convenience is worth the £3.

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It wouldn't surprise me if you used up close to £3 switching it on and off from the unit.

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