The £9.99 SMJ Energy Saving Plug Adaptor totally cuts the power to electrical products left on standby, but still allows them to be switched on and off using a remote control.

The device promises to cut average household energy consumption by up to 10 per cent and has naturally been approved by the government's watchdog group the Energy Saving Trust.

“Standby’s got to go, but in the meantime it’s great news that these energy saving plug adaptors are now available," said Laura Yates, Climate and Energy Campaigner at Greenpeace.

"Just as Currys showed the way forward when it decided to only stock energy efficient light bulbs, they’re doing what all retailers should be doing – making it easy for us all to reduce the energy wasted at home.” 
Currys estimates that more than half of all household electrical items now have standby buttons and recent government reports estimate that they waste up to 800,000 tonnes of carbon every year.

If you need it in financial terms, that's approximately £660m wasted every year.

Currys said the launch of the adaptor is part of its programme to bring new environmentally sound technologies to market.

The retailer is also in negotiations to launch another energy efficient electrical device, which was featured on the BBC2 hit TV series Dragons’ Den.

“Whilst we continue to work towards eliminating standby buttons altogether, this product offers a very cheap, easy to use and highly effective method by which customers can significantly reduce the impact that their electrical products are having on the environment, as well as make a real saving on their electricity bills,” said Anna Burleigh, marketing director at Currys.