Research

I have decieded to go with my idea of a touch interface universal remote. I have been doing a lot of research on standby power. I have dicovered that standby is responsable for nearly 10% of our energy usage. If a device is not switched off at the wall then it will most likely be on standby power. New high powered devices that come out say that they have reduced wattage when it comes to standby power but according to

http://standby.lbl.gov/faq.html we will not be seeing stand by power decrease. Another thing i researched was the impact on devices if they were to be turned on and off and the power required to turn them on at intial start up. Most main devices like tv's and microwaves, etc will not have a problem turning on and off. Also Almost all household devices do not require any extra energy to turn on.

References:

http://www.gizmodo.com.au/2011/04/do-you-use-energy-saving-gadgets-at-home/

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standby_power

http://tlc.howstuffworks.com/home/question272.htm

http://standby.lbl.gov/faq.html

http://www.energysavers.gov/your_home/appliances/index.cfm/mytopic=10040