Your gadgets are still eating your bill while you sleep
Here’s a fact your telly won’t tell you: it’s still costing you money long after you’ve switched it “off”. Standby power is the quiet drip of electricity that keeps chargers, consoles, routers and smart speakers ticking over 24 hours a day, whether you’re using them or not.
Nobody chooses to pay for standby power. It’s just the Do Nothing Default in action: leave the plug in, and your supplier is quietly happy to keep the meter turning. The fix takes about the length of an advert break.
How much does standby power actually cost?
Energy Saving Trust says you can save “around £45 a year in GB and £55 in NI just by remembering to turn your appliances off standby mode” (checked September 2026). It’s not a huge number on its own, but it’s roughly a month’s broadband bill for doing precisely nothing.
Standby power isn’t one villain, either. It’s a dozen small ones. A phone charger left in the wall, a soundbar waiting for a remote signal, a router that never sleeps: none of them look expensive alone. Add them up across a household and the standby power total becomes real money sitting in the background of every bill.
Which gadgets are the worst offenders?
Not every device on standby costs the same, and the spread between them is wider than you’d guess:
- Smart speakers and smart displays vary enormously. Running cost comparisons put the most efficient smart speakers at well under £1 a year, while larger models with screens run to several pounds a year each, most of it spent idling rather than playing anything.
- TVs are supposed to draw very little in “eco” standby, but switching on a “quick start” setting raises that draw considerably, all day, every day.
- Games consoles and set top boxes often keep downloading updates and staying “ready” long after you’ve stopped watching or playing.
- Phone and laptop chargers left plugged in without a device attached still draw a trickle of standby power.
None of this is your fault. Manufacturers design devices to feel instantly ready, and instantly ready means never fully off. Your standing charges and unit rates still do far more damage than standby power ever will. But you can zero out standby power tonight. A tariff review takes longer.
It also stacks with the season. As the heating comes on for the first time this autumn, households naturally plug in more: extra lamps, electric blankets, humidifiers. Every one of them adds its own sliver of standby power once the season’s over and they’re forgotten in a cupboard, still wired in and waiting.
The gadgets that trick you into thinking they’re off
The worst standby power offenders are the ones with no visible light, no hum, nothing to remind you they’re switched on at all. A phone charger without a phone still pulls a small current. A microwave clock, a router blinking quietly in the hallway, a smart plug waiting for a command: they’re all part of the same standby power picture, and they’re invisible by design.
Roo’s take is refreshingly blunt: if you wouldn’t leave a tap dripping overnight, don’t leave a charger doing the electrical equivalent.
Key takeaways
- Energy Saving Trust puts the saving from switching appliances off standby at around £45 a year in GB, £55 in NI.
- Smart displays, “quick start” TVs and idle consoles are among the biggest standby power users; the smallest speakers cost pennies.
- A single extension lead with an on/off switch turns several devices off standby at once.
- Checking your standing charges and unit rates matters more than standby power, but the two add up together.
Three checks that cut standby power this winter
You don’t need to unplug everything the moment you leave a room. A few habits do most of the work:
- Switch off at the wall for anything with a physical switch, especially TVs, games consoles and soundbars, rather than leaving them on standby overnight.
- Use one switched extension lead for the entertainment corner, so turning off standby power on four devices takes one flick, not four.
- Check your TV’s power setting and pick “eco” standby over “quick start” if speed of turning on isn’t essential.
If flicking switches every night feels like a chore you’ll abandon by November, a plug in timer or a smart standby saver does the job automatically. They’re cheap, they pay for themselves within a year on the Energy Saving Trust numbers above, and they mean you never have to remember.
Standby power is never going to rival a fixed tariff or a smart meter for impact on your bill. But it’s one of the few costs that’s entirely within your control, tonight, without a phone call to anyone.
Frequently asked questions about standby power
- Is it bad to unplug appliances every night?
- No. Most appliances are designed to be switched off at the wall, and doing so has no effect on their lifespan. The exceptions are devices mid update, like some routers or smart hubs, which are best left alone during a firmware update.
- Does a smart plug waste power by being on standby itself?
- A little, yes. Smart plugs and smart bulbs stay in a low standby power state so they can respond to a signal. It’s a small trade off for convenience, and far less than the device they’re switching off.
- Will turning things off standby show up on my next bill?
- Only over time. Standby power is a slow drip rather than a spike, so the saving builds up across weeks and months rather than appearing on a single bill.
- Is my router safe to switch off standby overnight?
- Most routers can be switched off overnight without issue, though check with your broadband provider first if you rely on it for a home phone line or medical alert device.
- What uses the most standby power in a typical home?
- Entertainment equipment, particularly TVs left on “quick start” mode and games consoles left ready to resume, tend to be the biggest standby power users in most homes.
Standby power won’t fix a bill that’s gone up because of the price cap. For that, it’s worth knowing what a typical household bill looks like right now, and checking you’re still on the best deal for your usage rather than sitting on a supplier’s default rate.
Cutting standby power is a five minute job. The saving is modest but real, and it costs you nothing to claim it. Pair it with an honest look at your tariff, and the two together are worth having before winter properly sets in.
Sources
Checked September 2026. Appliance running costs vary with your own unit rate and how each device is configured.
