Dictation.
My earlier post about a washing machine being left on full the time was meant to be a sarcasm. I had no idea that the European Union as well as the United States want people to use standby appliances that consume only 1 W of power.
Now, if they really want to, there is the technology available that can reduce the standby power down to zero. Yes, zero, or even less. To make it work there would have to be a change in the electrical codes for all new construction and for existing residential construction.
Basically, it is about how to to provide an alternative power source to small appliances over the existing residential wiring. This system would supply the standby voltage of 18 V that comes from a different power source. The power source would be something other than the electrical mains. For example, it could be a solar panel that charges up a battery and provides the DC voltage through the existing power lines.
Excuse me, I misspoke. It is not 18 V DC. It is actually a radio frequency source that will deliver about 18 V DC to each appliance. Sorry, I don't have the details at hand. The concept is similar to the idea of providing data over power lines using radio frequencies, except in this case, said discrete radio frequency is used to provide a small amount of power.
Because this would introduce new technology, it doesn't seem likely that the European Union and United States would adopt this kind of technology in the near future. But in the long term. it offers a way for an entire city to shut down the entire power grid for several hours while residences can continue to have standby power for emergency use. Meanwhile, we have these goofy laws that require a Band-Aid approach to a much larger problem.
Back to topic.
I would imagine that the OP could come up with some clever scheme of having a power cut off with some kind of a relay after the power level drops below a certain point.
