Dixons Store Group, Europe's biggest electrical chain, is to pioneer a phase-out of energy-guzzling stand-by functions on TVs and DVD players that drain electricity and waste money.

Dixons, which runs Currys and PC World as well as Dixons online store, will exhort manufacturers to ditch stand-by after noticing a rise in the sale of energy-efficient products. Around 10 per cent of the average household's electricity bill is wasted through gadgets left on when not in use, costing the average home £37 a year.

Calling for action from suppliers, John Clare, chief executive of the Dixons Store Group (DSG), said: "We must work together to offer more energy-efficient products, phase out, where possible, the stand-by function on electrical products, provide energy efficiency information to users, including energy efficient labelling for brown goods." DSG has 1,250 shops across Europe and sells products by the likes of Sony and Hitachi as well as its own Matsui and Logic brands, making it a powerful force in the electronics industry.

Setting out the company's new green approach in a speech to suppliers in London last night, Mr Clare said that Dixons customers had undergone a conversion to environmentalism.

In advance of his speech, he remarked: "From a retail perspective, the shift in customer behaviour is already beginning. The introduction of energy-efficiency labelling in our white goods ranges several years ago brought about a fundamental shift in buyer behaviour. I believe that the same will happen in the brown goods sector [TVs, DVD players, digital cameras, etc]. We are seeing more and more customers making buying decisions on the basis of energy efficiency. "Our decisions to introduce solar panels and phase out the sale of conventional light bulbs were... popular with both customers and stakeholders. I suspect that the momentum in this area will only increase."

The rising number of energy-guzzling gadgets threatens Government climate-change targets. Electricity used by household domestic appliances doubled in the 30 years to 2002 and is expected to rise by a further 12 per cent by 2010, according to the Energy Saving Trust.

Although Dixons set no date for the end of stand-by, its call to ditch it was welcomed by campaigners. Lucy Yates, of the National Consumer Council, said: "This is good news. NCC has been calling on retailers and manufacturers to do more to help customers make greener choices."

A spokesman for the Energy Saving Trust said: "Phasing out stand-by is a positive step for consumers in the longer term. However, there are things that householders can do here and now in their homes to help minimise the environmental impact of their electronic equipment, such as turning existing appliances off stand-by when they're not in use. "Households in the UK now spend around 10 per cent of their electricity bill on stand-by power and the average household wastes £37 each year by leaving appliances on stand-by."

The most energy-efficient electrical appliances carry the Energy Saving Recommended logo.

Home front in the energy battle
Electrical goods can use as much energy on stand-by as when they are operating. Failure to switch them off at the plug accounts for about 10 per cent of an average home's annual electricity bill of £367. Leaving the small red light on has a big cost to the environment, too.

According to government estimates, electrical devices emit nearly 800,000 tonnes of carbon each year. Improving energy efficiency can cut the carbon footprint of the average British home - which totals up to six tonnes of carbon dioxide a year.

Homes could save around one third of those emissions - two tonnes of carbon dioxide a year - through such measures as loft insulation and switching off electronics.

(By Martin Hickman, The Independent, 13/06/2007)