Oct. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Britons waste 900 million pounds ($1.5 billion) a year by leaving lights, televisions and other electrical appliances switched on when they're not needed, a study for the U.K. Energy Saving Trust found.

Nearly 44 million pounds of energy is consumed by running TVs and computers during sleeping hours, enough to pay the annual electricity bills of 78,000 households, the trust said today in an e-mailed statement. Producing that energy generates as much carbon dioxide as driving around the world 19,000 times, it said.

``It's hard to believe that in the current economic climate we're effectively dreaming away this kind of cash,'' the trust's chief executive, Philip Sellwood, said in the statement. ``Just by turning appliances off properly when they are not in use and avoiding standby, householders in the U.K. could collectively save over 900 million pounds a year.''

The trust commissioned the study from ICM research, which surveyed 2,000 people throughout the U.K.

Almost half of Britons polled said they left the TV running or on standby at night, and a quarter kept a light on.

ICM also surveyed 1,000 people in each of Spain, France, Sweden and Germany. In France and Spain, just 7 percent of people left a light on at night. About a third of Swedes left their heating on overnight, compared with 29 percent in France, 26 percent in Germany and 14 percent in the U.K.

The Energy Saving Trust is a non-profit organization that advises businesses and households how to cut power and heat usage and slash emissions of the greenhouse gases that add to global warming.

To contact the reporter on this story: Alex Morales in London at amorales2@bloomberg.net.

Last Updated: October 22, 2008 05:02 EDT