Unplugging electrics overnight..

[Guest]

Everything unplugged except for fridge /freezer . Friends husband was safety officer for Fire brigade and he advised us to do so .

 

Probably shouldn't be in that role really. In what way does unplugging your TV and leaving your fridge/freezer plugged in somehow protect you from fire? What it is it about this that you think is somehow logical and sensible?

 

And as Ghozer says for routers...

 

Turning off your internet modem/router often can cause your speed to drop also, as the exchange detects it going off, and coming back on, and thinks there's a stability issue, so lowers the speed to try and stabilize it...

 

Most things are meant to be left on or in standby, they do not like being constantly turned on and off.

 

Personally the thing to be worried about is the house wiring itself and making sure that is safe. Electrical items cannot be sold if they're going to blow up through being left on.

[Cyclone]

What % of house fires are caused by faulty electrics or electronics?

 

only six per cent of accidental dwelling fires were caused by

smokers’ materials in 2014/15.

Cooking appliances caused 50 per cent of accidental dwelling fires in 2014/15, and

was by far the largest ignition category.

36 per cent of accidental dwelling fires in 2014/15 were caused by “misuse of

equipment or appliances”, the same percentage as in 2013/14. The second largest

cause category was “faulty appliances and leads” which caused 16 per cent of all

accidental dwelling fires.

 

So there we go, 16% started by faulty appliances or leads.

 

Electrical distribution is actually 12% and "other electrical appliance" about the same.

 

Statistics for fatalities vary considerably from this though (for example cooking related fires kill very few people, probably because you're generally awake and alert when cooking).

 

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/532364/fire-statistics-england-1415-hosb0816.pdf

[L00b]

I think you are mad for doing it. Check your equipment, see that CE mark? It stops things frying when switched off.

If the item was manufactured in China, chances may be that this CE mark is worth less than the ink it's made from.

 

I have seen how some Chinese manufacturers and their UK customers "handle" CE marking for small electric appliances and plug trays with my own eyes. Though admittedly, that last was 5 or 6 years ago. In a nutshell, that was a pence per unit dearer to put the CE mark sticker on, but no difference in components, QA/testing or anything else relative to non-CE marked units.

 

I'm certainly hoping things (regulatory checks and compliance enforcement) have changed since.

 

As for unplugging electrics overnight...same as geared and Cyclone, here. I'd only switch the plug off if whatever's connected to it isn't going to get used for a while (week or longer), and would only physically unplug stuff in case of a thunderstorm. IMHO, a better mitigation strategy for electrically-related fire hazards is to buy quality/branded appliances/chargers/etc. with 'proper' or moulded UK plugs, instead of cheap(est) clones and/or requiring a plug adapter (e.g. US>UK) or stepdown transformer or somesuch.

Edited August 16, 2016 by L00b