A €20 plug-in power meter revealed a hard truth in my Marseille flat: 127 watts, 24/7, with every device officially "off." That's roughly 1,100 kWh a year — about €220 at the 2024 Tarif Bleu rate of €0.2516/kWh. ADEME estimates standby loads make up around 10% of an average French household's electricity bill, and the figure has barely moved in a decade despite EU labelling rules. Here are the seven usual suspects I found at home and in friends' flats — and the cheap fixes that genuinely work.
On standby, the typical French AV stack — TV + box (Bbox, Livebox, Freebox), Apple TV or Chromecast, soundbar — draws 20–30 W continuously. The Freebox alone has been measured at 12–18 W in standby (Que Choisir tests, 2023). A surge-protected switched strip cuts the lot at once; some Freebox / Livebox boxes also have a deep-sleep mode in their settings menu (look for "mode économie d'énergie"). Savings: €50–€70/year on a typical setup.
PS5 in rest mode draws 1.5–10 W depending on settings; Xbox Series X has an "instant-on" mode that pulls 12–13 W (vs ~0.5 W in energy-saver mode). Switch instant-on off in Settings → Power Mode and you'll save €20–30/year per console. The 30-second longer cold boot is a fair trade.
A single phone charger plugged in but not charging draws 0.1–0.5 W — negligible alone. But the average French flat now has 8–12 always-plugged chargers (laptops, phones, tablets, watches, brosses à dents, headphones). Cumulatively that's 5–15 W. Group them on a switched strip near the front door or bedside.
Monitor + printer + dock + speakers + USB hub commonly draws 15–25 W on standby — a fair chunk of a remote worker's electricity bill. A €15 mechanical timer (or a Linky-aware smart plug like the Tapo P110) that cuts power 22:00–06:00 and weekends recovers €30–€50/year. The Tapo P110 also reports real-time draw, which doubles as a power meter for hunting other vampires.
Display clocks and standby logic on a microwave + Nespresso + dishwasher add up to 5–10 W constant. A switched strip in the "small appliances" corner that you flick off before bed costs €10 and saves €15–€25/year. Bonus: a fully-off Nespresso doesn't go through the morning auto-rinse cycle, which uses a surprising amount of water and electricity each day.
Leave the main internet box on (you may rely on it for security cameras, smart locks, or remote work). But Hue bridges, Sonos hubs, smart-home gateways and unused mesh nodes can typically be dropped overnight without breaking anything important. A weekly Sunday-21:00–22:00 "firmware window" via a smart plug catches updates without needing 24/7 uptime.
Some 2018–2020 monitor and soundbar models pull 5–10 W in deep standby (LED on the front). Newer EU-compliant kit caps at 0.5 W, but the older units in many homes ignore that. Plug them into the TV strip so everything cuts together — including the LED clock on the soundbar that drained 7 W in my own measurements.
A €20 plug-in power meter (Brennenstuhl PM 231 E, Perel E305EM6, or Voltcraft 4500 PRO) is the single best purchase. Measure each device for 24 hours: anything pulling more than 1 W when supposedly off is a candidate. The Linky meter app (EDF Bleu Ciel or third-party Linky readers) shows your overall load curve and reveals when standby spikes — handy for spotting a forgotten always-on appliance. For €30–€50 in meters and switched strips, most French flats recover €100–€200/year, every year.
Conclusion: You can't see vampire power, but you'll see the bill. One €20 power meter, two switched strips at €15 each, and a €15 smart plug for the home-office stack reclaim €100–€200/year without changing your lifestyle. The Linky load curve confirms the wins in real time. Continue your energy savings with our [autumn lighting tips](/en/blog/2025-09-24-autumn-lighting) and our [5 habits to cut your heating bill](/en/blog/2025-10-01-cut-heating-bill-5-habits).
Yes. ADEME's reference figure is ~10% of the household electricity bill, which on a 4,679 kWh average annual consumption (RTE) translates to roughly €100–€120/year at Tarif Bleu rates. A €30 spend on a power meter and two switched strips usually pays back in 2–3 months and keeps saving every year after.
No, for nearly all consumer electronics. The exception is some inkjet printers (cap-cleaning cycles run on power-up) and very old CRT/plasma TVs (long warm-up cycles). Modern LED TVs, consoles in energy-saver mode, AV receivers, monitors, and home-office kit all handle hard power-off fine. Set-top boxes (Freebox, Livebox) often have a soft "mode veille profonde" that's safer than yanking power.
For schedule-able devices, yes. A Tapo P110 (€15–€20) reports real-time consumption, automates schedules, and works without a hub via Wi-Fi. Shelly Plus 1PM (similar price) is the EU-style version with the same features. They pay back in 4–6 months on home-office or AV stacks. Keep the main router on a regular plug (you don't want a smart plug crashing your internet).
Yes. The Linky meter sends 30-minute consumption data to Enedis. Free third-party apps (Pilot Power Manager, Hello Watt, Energie+) visualise the load curve. Look at 02:00–05:00 — anything above ~50 W is your standby baseline. Compare before and after each fix to confirm savings (it's satisfyingly visible).
Not strictly necessary. A modern phone charger draws under 0.1 W when idle — €0.20/year. The exception is old transformer-block chargers (cubes weighing 100+ g) and laptop bricks, which can draw 1–3 W idle. Group those on a switched strip and ignore the small phone bricks; the calorie/effort ratio isn't worth it.
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Julien Maurice is the founder of AdminLanding and writes the editorial guides on GreenDailyFix covering French renovation aid, energy policy, and the administrative side of the energy transition. Contact: [email protected]
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