Bye-Bye Standby Turn everything off with one button!

[XONE]

"Save money and use the switch! "

I don't get it either.  Sorry guys.  We have 10 extension blocks covering 3 TVs (with associated peripherals) and 7 computer systems in the house.  Everyone is very good at just reaching down and flipping the switch.  I don't see what a Remote would get me, other than being able to hit a kill button at bedside / front door to be sure that everything was off, but the times something gets left on by mistake is negligible.

Saving time going round turning all & sundry off.
Good for the old less able to bend & turn on / off.

Good training for my INFANT so I shout less about leaving things on in future when she becomes a teen (as so many devices are just left) ..she feels in control & responsible of her electric, trains her mind, lets her windmills (2 megawatt ones) have a rest once in a while as she see's it!

..therefore it promotes responsibility & awareness! ..if this is the modern route to opening a childs eyes as to personal & social responsibility then it's worth it!
..plus she knows that saving the electric means we can make the house greener by means of low wattage Luxeon lighting etc (like daddy's torch) or put the money saved into a solar water system for her baths.

Education is king, still doesn't need to rely on a remote control though, that just promotes laziness.

[kristen]

lets her windmills (2 megawatt ones) have a rest once in a while as she see's it!"

I like the way she thinks!

I wonder ... maybe I should get a money box, and put the savings in their for the family to then decide what to spend it on periodically ...

[MR GUS]

Xone, list,

 A remote ISN'T lazy if it's a pre-requisite! as stated before by other members & myself if access is a problem or you cannot bend over to turn everything off (eg new builds are having plug sockets higher up the wall in order to facilitate this as the population ages.

 My daughter (as many modern house dwellers) occupy's the smallest bedroom in the house so her room is crammed with furniture & plug sockets innacessible so A WALL SWITCH by her bedroom door turns all this off for her (by her own hand) via a solar charged remote battery.
..if I were to move her bed into a larger bedroom (then needs additional heating & insulation etc) then that can mean she reaches her switche(s) in the morning but the cost of heating a large area will negate any benefits as heat pours out of the walls & roof on a winter night ,...just because I came from an old never heated house try convincing modern mothers not to ever turn on heating over winter (for instance)
Also infants tend to cram bits of tin-foil in wall sockets so they need to be blocked up / covered over further hindering overall access / further useability!

 The days of the majority walking round the house at night & checking every socket are in essence long gone as we become a charger phone / battery led mobile society, so things such as this have their place.

My mate in his wheelchair is particularly chuffed with his, as are my 80 yr old aunt (as am I) just to say it's lazy is not thinking clearly on the wider issue & possible resolutions.
Laziness? no, definitely not!

 My suggestion would be to actually incorporate a lazy remote switch into a phone's wall charger so it shuts down after a proper charge, then resets when next paired with phone in which case the lazy approach would actually work in order to reduce wasted energy for millions.

 Don't write off for others what may not be applicable in your lifestyle, as you may actually hold an answer that could benefit the majority.

[wyleu]

Can you easily extend the bye bye standby to have motion detection or is there a mechanism for a global off button? Can they be integrated into a wider home automation installation?  There are certainly situation where they may be beneficial but they are built to a price and as a result have dispensed with some of the higher level functions that make them truly useful. They use a proprietary standard for control which is not supported by any of the major home automation packages.Indeed this was a requisite of the design.
On several home automation installations for enthusiasts for action at a distance control the first part of the job is to explain that the various solutions to the various problems (dimmers, phone extenders, time clocks, remote control repeaters etc) they have bought need to be replaced if they want what they imagine home automation should be.
The battleground for control of home audio, video , games playing ,and house monitoring is yet to be won and players like Microsoft et al have some fairly innovative solutions waiting in the wings. Devices like bye bye standby do not have the subtlety of control to allow you to pick and choose the devices that do and do not need to be placed into a low level state for specific reasons that are dependent on the devices involved. For instance I would imagine that after a power cut it is likely ( indeed almost a legal requirement) that they do not come up powered since the risk of having something like a heater plugged into them that is activated after power failure could risk a fire. Thus if they power your video at you have a power cut they will not turn the video on after the cut, thereby defeating the very function you are trying to perform.

You bristle at the accusation of laziness and to an extent bye bye standby addresses some aspects of this, but laziness is a very genuine human motivation and in the end the answer is have the controlled device decide whether or not to turn itself on and off under the control of a set of rules proscribed by the owner. They have proved very profitable for a company that is fairly involved in home automation but they are seen as a step towards a profitable future for that company not a panacea. It is designed to wet your apatite and hopefully you will by enough of them to hit the limits and then replace them with something more appropriate in the end. It makes good economic sense for the companies shareholders and since the government do not influence this sort of marketing mechanism they will continue to do this rather than help you take a really serious look at the overall problem that needs solving. I have had several dealings with them and they have a great deal of expertise on home automation but regrettably it is being cut back in favour of sales for devices precisely like bye bye standby which make a quick buck.

Sorry to sound so patronising but it is just one aspect of how our very economic structure leads to waste and short term solutions. Government believes the market will address the energy shortfall and to an extent it will but a more optimum solution would be to restructure company law so that a company must take a long term view rather than a short term profit. Now how likely is that to happen before they are forced to rebuild from virtually nothing along slightly more sensible lines?

[kristen]

I can't argue with it being better to get things turned off, by whatever means, rather than left on, and clearly there are situations where a remote is anything-but a lazy option.

"the answer is have the controlled device decide whether or not to turn itself on and off under the control of a set of rules proscribed by the owner."

My sky plus box goes to standby at 1am, or somesuch.  I am particularly aware of this when I wake up at 2am on the sofa 

I think they should program it to go into standby after, say, 1 hours running with no signals from Remote etc.  At 1am it springs up a "going into standby in X minutes" warning, so the "one hour and then standby" thingie could have a similar message - I would only have to press any button on the remote to tell it to stay running.

Notwithstanding which I believe the power usage of Sky-plus on standby is not good

[martin]

It's all very well considering well-brought up intelligent middle-class children and their "training to become responsible adults", but unfortunately, said children are in an extreme minority - blobby thickets prevail! It's a bit like saying "we won't have self-closing fire doors, it'll be good training for the kids to have to remember to close them"..............
As time goes by, more and more things have become "automatic", and "fail safe" - it could be argued that it just makes us lazy and stupid - that may be so, but if the vast majority couldn't/wouldn't remember, make it automatic!
(bit like ABS brakes or cadence braking)

[MR GUS]

 Yup, there is a motion sensor available Wyleu.

 Like home cinema, or phone technology all companies are chasing the next new thing (dolby onwards for example) and "futureproofing" is a worn phrase without foundation so sometimes the simpler forms are the ones that remain whilst the more techno variety fails to score for more than a few years then redundant,

 If a company that specializes in expensive home automation can bang a buck from cheap basic old technology in these harder times then I don't blame them for trying! ..somehow I don't think it'll send sales for full on automationto them, simply fill a gap!

[MR GUS]

Well if we want to call it a trial we can, a year long one at that.

 The bye bye's are working on original remote batteries etc, extremely well.

 It's as ingrained as much a light switch in a dark room is useful to use.

 We have 12 in operation now & they have really kicked my butt as far as items on are concerned (with minimal human slippage)

 still haven't got the 3000 watt units as I am merely reducing my overall electricity useage.

 These units do save time, money & backache ..not one grumble from anyone with regards to using them, they've fitted into our lifestyle very well!
 combined with an energy meter these work doubly effectively!