Have you ever wondered how much electricity your TV or other appliances are using when on standy? How about how much CO2 it is emitting? Bet you never thought of that one.

In a recently published article on BBC News it is revealed that:

“Britons waste the equivalent of around two power stations’ worth of electricity each year by leaving TV sets and other gadgets on standby.

Last June Environment Minister Elliot Morley, responding to an MP’s question, revealed that electrical equipment in sleep mode used roughly 7TWh of energy and emitted around 800,000 tonnes of carbon.”

That’s alot of electricty and alot of crap we are releasing into our atmosphere.

Let’s not forget that in England there are far more TVs, but you can still get a rough idea of the usage here from these factsIn the newspaper, yesterday (www.news24.com) the City Council were saying that we are going to start conserving electricity here in Cape Town, like we do with the water.

“In certain parts of the city, street lights burn during the day to prevent the lights’ cables from being stolen. The cables are going to be buried in cement so that the lights can be turned off during the day.

Table Mountain’s famous illuminations will also disappear. The 49 light bulbs of 2 W each use about 98 kW of power. This isn’t enough to supply power to a building or suburb but it may help conserve power. (Turn your frigging TV off dude!)

Lights along national main routes such as the N2 highway will also be switched off. For safety reasons, the street lights in the city’s suburbs won’t be switched off,” Kadalie said.”

Why don’t the council just watch BBC News and get some ideas from there. Instead of turning the lights off on the N2, which is already a death trap with lighting, why don’t we just get off our behinds and turn off our appliances, instead of leaving them on standby. We’ll save electricity and save our precious atmosphere at the same time. Just an idea. Use it or lose it.