No, leaving lights on and gadgets on standby, doesn't NECESSARILY waste power...

It's something that occurs to me every Autumn and winter in the UK. I have to confess.

Now, I'm all for everyone saving energy all the time in all countries throughout the year, but I just wanted to state that there's an exception of sorts.

When the temperature's below about 10℃ outside, it doesn't really matter in the slightest if your kids leave lights on or if all your gadgets are on charge for too long or your TV and video system's on standby all the time. Not in the slightest. So you can stop shouting at your kids and worrying.

It's because lights and mains adapters and so on all, ultimately generate heat - all the energy that they're consuming is - in the end - being emitted into the house in some way, meaning that there's less work for your central heating system to do.

So, let's say that you use up an extra 50p of electricity a day by being super wasteful by ignoring all the usual energy-saving tricks. By my reckoning, you'll spend 49p less on fuel/electricity in your heating system for the day.

Of course, there are extra variables - disparities in cost between gas and electricity, lights and equipment left on in out-houses, and so on - but the general principle applies: be more chilled in the winter months (see what I did there?) about all the energy wasting things you see in the summer months!