A tweet by @JaneFoth reminded me recently how my habits have changed regarding leaving electronics on at night.

I used to leave everything on, computers, routers, TVs, video recorders, etc. Many geeks see long ‘uptime’ as a badge of honour.

These days I turn almost everything off at night. My nerdy little bedtime routine involves turning off lights, sockets until the only things that are left turned on at the wall are the fridge, the boiler, my bedside light, and my iPhone charger.

The only downside is now I have a Virgin V+ box, which is a hard-disk cable video recorder. So it doesn’t record when it’s not turned on. But no matter.

I also often turn everything off when I go out, maybe not if I’m just popping out for an hour or two, but if I’m out longer than that I go through the same ol’ routine, everything gets turned off.

The advent of good mobile phones connected to the internet is a big reason everything gets turned off. I used to leave the internet on all the time, for instant easy access. But now, I just pick up my iPhone to see email etc.

Why do I do all this? One reason is to save money, of course, I have a pound coin electric meter (the flat I live in used to be a holiday flat), so it’s very obvious how much electric is being used.

The other big reason is safety. I don’t think people realise just how easy it is for electrical items to catch fire. Many many fires are caused by electrical faults. The last thing you want is to wake up to be confronted by smoke and flames, or worse, not wake up…

I remember once sitting at my computer and smoke suddenly came out of it, a fan or something failed and up it went. I turned it off quick, but it was a scary prospect, if I hadn’t been sat there, what would have happened?

Do you turn things off? Have you ever had anything electrical catch fire? Comment below…