Referring again to the power consumption of “stand-by” appliances discussed earlier, I recently stoborrowed a WSE Wattmeter, made by Messtechnik Schaffhausen GmbH, from our laboratory, and measured the power consumption of the few appliances we have at our place after our recent move.

• Sony stereo player: 6 W.
• Aquarium, 60 L: 100 W with lighting turned on, 20 W with only filter, air pump and heater.
• Philips TV: 8 W on standby, 130 W when turned on.
• Philips DVD: not measurable on standby(!), 17 W when playing.

We have now decided to turn the TV completely off when not in use, which saves us 17.5 swiss francs per year. The Sony stereo can unfortunately not be turned off unless I install a mechanical switch.

I was rather surprised to learn that the lighting on our aquarium required about 80 W, when the fluorescent lamp was only rated at 15 W. I even went to a hardware store to buy a new one, only to discover that the power consumption did not improve. Then I realized that the 10+ years old ballast was almost certainly the culprit, accounting for the missing 65 W. That will be for the next visit to the hardware store…