[ollyk]

Sorry but for people to say that a lot of their telly is on during standby it is just not true! When a telly goes into standby it is generally only the power supply and micro that are powered up the tube, LCD or in fact any other components are not kept warm as people seem to think - I have never heard of a case of this yet but I am sure there might have been examples perhaps in the valve tech. when merging with early remote control perhaps?!
There really is a lot of miss-information out their and a lot of standby figures have been based on older technology.. I would also not advocate the use of these plug in power meters to ascertain consumption especially at such negligible power levels. I think accuracy will vary wildly in a reactive load such as a telly.

Anyway, It is true things are not as efficient as they could be and things are changing. Batteries are being considered, this is now becoming possible with better battery technology and above all lower power consumption as a result of modern technology.
There were some entrepreneurs on the Dragons Den (last series) who invented a power strip that you could switch on and off with your remote control - a very good idea and I think they are well on their way to marketing this product. I was however dismayed once again to see them selling their product inaccurately, taking advantage of peoples lack of basic knowledge in such basic principles... Unfortunately there are too many companies (and government bodies?) caching in on this energy saving phenomenon and distorting figures to boost their sales, just look at some of those home wind generators to see what a farce it can be!