Save The Planet

Unnecessary electricity consumption has two types of environmental impact: contributing to Carbon Dioxide (CO₂) emissions and using resources.

Reduce harmful emissions

By using a Standby Buster to switch off a typical arrangement of electronic entertainment equipment when not in use will save approximately 570kWh* of electricity over the course of the year. Generating this electricity would typically produce 245kg** of Carbon Dioxide (CO₂).

On a broader scale, in 2005 Norman Baker MP, the Liberal Democrat's environment spokesman announced that he had calculated CO₂ emissions from electrical equipment being left on standby in the UK in that one year were equivalent to 1.4 million long-haul flights. Put another way, the entire population of Glasgow could fly to New York and back again and the resulting emissions would still be less than that from devices left in standby.

Save the Earth's resources

It was estimated that in the UK in 2005, 7TWh (that’s seven thousand million kilowatt hours of electricity was consumed by appliances on standby). If that electricity was produced by coal fired electricity stations, it would consume about 1 million tonnes of coal or over half of all the coal that is open cast mined in England and Wales.

* Based on the Which? Report identified savings of £40 assuming an average price of 7p per kWh.

**The Climate Change Levy Negotiated Agreements and the ETS use an average carbon intensity factor for the estimation of carbon dioxide emissions from the consumption of electricity: this has been fixed at 0.43 kgCO₂/kWh