Do you feel the same?

@xbandoleerx Thankyou!

Well, it's only a small house: 2 rooms upstairs, 2 downstairs and a ground-floor "wing" that holds the kitchen and bathroom. So hardly complicated, but it does have some oddities and really, is ripe for re-wiring.

I don't know which country you live in, but British homes are fitted with what are called "ring mains"; a separate loop of cable on each floor with the sockets in parallel around their feeder ring, and the ring having its own circuit-breaker. Mine also has a separate ring for the kitchen, and a spur to the lights and sockets in a shed.

Your question was about what's plugged into the sockets though - and some of the responses revealed that Britain may be unusual in most of the sockets being fitted with switches, so you don't need unplug an appliance after use, just turn the socket switch off.

(Though if you need work on the innards of the appliance, or could be injured if you start it accidentally, obviously you do unplug it as well!)

My Dad was a Chartered Electrical Engineer working as a scientist designing highly specialised equipment, not domestic wiring. He was also very practical, able to make as well as design circuits. He re-wired my parents' home completely in the 1960s, to the latest regulations and trade standards of that time.

I once stayed at a family friends daughters apartment, she was away that wknd, it was a student digs off campus and i was in town for a friends wedding.

When i checked the kitchen i noticed the one plate of the electric stove was warm despite the stove knobs being in off position.

I switched it off at the wall and sent a text to let her and mom know that the stove was obviously faulty and a fire hazard.

Now its 2nd nature, i switch off appliances at the wall everytime.

🔌

I didn't bother usually, but when I tried it for a time. I noticed a drop in the power bill. So it's worth it.

I agree.

Your question made me think what is ON all the time in my home. There are six, more than I first thought.

Those supplied via plugs in switched 13A mains sockets are:

1) The router / telephone p.s.u.

2) 'Fridge.

3) Freezer.

4) Clock / radio next to the bed.

They stay on nornally, but do not need unplugging to turn off: just turn the socket switch off.

Hard-wired are:

1) Clock / timer in the gas cooker. Isolated only by turning off the circuit-breaker for the entire ground-floor ring-main.

2) Central-heating / hot-water boiler (gas fired). This has an adjacent isolating-switch. When no water is flowing the current draw is minimal, just the clock and the control circuit.


If I go away for more than a couple of days, which is rare, I switch off the sockets holding the electric kettle and the router plugs.

I have two mains / battery, portable radios. It was only a very faint hum from one of them that revealed these are not truly turned off by their own switches, when plugged into the mains. So I now turn their sockets off too, when not in use.

The router normally stays on for the telephone. The change from copper-wired broadband telephone line to full-(glass-)fibre enforces the land-line telephone being supplied from the home's mains. Previously it used an independent, permanent 50V d.c. from the telephone-exchange.

Me and my Mom unplug anything not in use except our TVS... And it DOES somewhat save on the Elect Bill

You will save 7% energy

I'm irritated when someone constantly turns it off. Especially router because it always takes long to boot.

Some appliances need re-setting (clock etc) each time you turn them off at the mains. I have better things to do with my life than constantly reprogramming electrics. I guess you won't want to visit my house!

It’s a fair point but the problem for me is that the sockets are in places that are hard to reach.

Many people do not know that most modern contraptions reside in sleep mode when they are "turned off". They will consume a lot of power over time. Very often there isn't even a main switch. You'll have to pull the plug.

There is no switch for that. Just a wall socket.