Atop TV Sets, a Power Drain Runs Nonstop

[athena]

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/26/us/26cable.html?hp

Those little boxes that usher cable signals and digital recording capacity into televisions have become the single largest electricity drain in many American homes, with some typical home entertainment configurations eating more power than a new refrigerator and even some central air-conditioning systems.

...

These set-top boxes are energy hogs mostly because their drives, tuners and other components are generally running full tilt, or nearly so, 24 hours a day, even when not in active use. The recent study, by the Natural Resources Defense Council, concluded that the boxes consumed $3 billion in electricity per year in the United States — and that 66 percent of that power is wasted when no one is watching and shows are not being recorded. That is more power than the state of Maryland uses over 12 months.

...

Alan Meier, a scientist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, said of the industry in the United States, “I don’t want to use the word ‘lazy,’ but they have had different priorities, and saving energy is not one of them.”

...

“If you hit the on/off button it only dims the clock, it doesn’t significantly reduce power use,” said Noah Horowitz, senior scientist at the natural resources council.

[peacebird]

1. we have a power strip attached to the entertainment center - we power the whole thing off

It takes a couple seconds longer to turn on but how much of an inconvenience it that really?

[Tesha]

3. We tried that with our newest Sony LCD TV.

It has the whiz-bang feature of an over-the-air
channel guide; presumably, one or more of the
channels broadcast digital data that the TV can
then receive and interpret to produce this channel
guide display and some associated advertising (of
course).

You can hear the TV power up from time to time;
a relay clicks and if you watch its power consumption
with a Kill-a-Watt (or other similar gadget), the TV
goes from miniscule wattage (a watt or so) up to about
27 watts and it remains there from about ten minutes
while it (presumably) receives the channel guide.
(Unless you're tuned to a channel-guide providing
channel, it can't receive the channel guide during
normal viewing.) And all in all, a large fraction of
the power used by this TV set is consumed by this
activity.

So we said: Okay, fine, we'll put it on a mechanical
timer that switches off power to the set during the
day and night when no one is ever watching it.

Sadly, the TV lost its electronic marbles, becoming
very frustrated that it hadn't been able to receive
an updated channel guide in several days, even though
I thought we gave it enough time each day to "do its
work".

We're now looking into whether or not we can "tune"
this behavior a bit. or whether it's a choice between
no channel guide at all or lots of wasted power. But
this is clearly a case where the better firmware
(programming) within the TV could have saved a lot
of power.

Sony does have a firmware update available for the TV
(isn't that a weird concept in and of itself?) --
we'll probably start by applying that and see if the
behavior is improved in any way.

Tesha

[eppur_se_muova]

4. I had a couple of older TVs that would forget which channels were blocked ...

if the power was interrupted. No backup battery or flash RAM, evidently.

[jberryhill]

12. Firmware updates to a tv

I'm almost surprised my electric razor doesn't need to download updates at this point.

[Codeine]

6. That doesn't really work for a DVR, however.

They need to be on to record. It would be nice if they would power down everything but a clock and then power up when it came time to make a recording, but they just seem to chug along non-stop.

[Tesha]

13. But it takes about 10 microwatts to power the clock chip...

...and the clock chip could easily fire-up the rest
of the DVR minutes ahead of the time that it is to
begin its next recording.

It's just a question of no market demand and no
regulation meaning no need to write that firmware.
The technical issues are bupkis.

Tesha

[Towlie]

11. With AT&T U-verse you can't pull the plug. It takes way too much time for the box to boot up again.

[Codeine]

15. 10 or more minutes.

The Orange Screen of Tedium.

[Kolesar]

23. The Scientific Atlanta "terminal" from Time Warner takes for friggin' forever to power up

TV sets have found a way to reduce energy use by powering down to less than one watt. I don't know why cable TV "terminals" have to waste so much energy.

[enough]

2. k&r (nt)

[madokie]

5. I have a kill-a-watt meter, (brand name.)

and I plugged in into our outlet that has the tv and the sound system then plugged them into it and my meter says we won't use a bucks worth of electricity in months when they're turned off. Tonight after we turn the tv off and get ready for bed I'll plug it in again and see what that supposed load is and if this thread is still around tomorrow I'll report what wattage those items will have used. I know what I pay for electricity so it will be easy to figure out what the cost would be.

I keep reading what you've posted so I bought this meter a few years ago to see and I found that none of what is reported here is true. But we'll see again tonight, maybe things have changed.

I've loaned it to others so they could see and they've all said the same thing as I'm saying here

[Tesha]

14. If your TV does "background tasks" (like mine) or you have a set top box or DVR...

...I can guarantee you that this article is absolutely
correct.

Tesha

[madokie]

16. Sorry but I have what you're saying and no it does not use the power that is claimed here

Visio 47 inch lcd, satelite, dvr, and sony surround sound all connected to the meter.

[joshcryer]

21. How much power is it draining?

[madokie]

22. Tonight when we go to bed and turn everything off I'll connect the kill-a-watt meter

and get back with you tomorrow as to how much it is. Its been a while since I done this test so anything I'd say right this minute would be a guess at best. I do remember it wasn't much of a drain though. Tomorrow we'll know for sure. I do remember that the saving of turning everything off using a power strip wouldn't have paid for a power strip in a long long time.
This article comes around every year or so and the last time was when I purchased the kill-a-watt meter at the tune of 20 bucks so I'm in the hole yet. At least now I know that its a bullshit story though.

[Froward69]

7. I cut my electric bill by 2/3rds

when i put the whole entertaimnet center on a power strip and turned it off when not in use... I fried the DVR. since then the dvr stays on and the bill went back up. my new roommate is such a resource waster that it really bugs me. my electric bill tripled when he plugged in his "air machine" to treat his sleep apnea. I smoke heavily and have sleep apnea too but I do not need an air machine to breathe... like my roommate is afraid to try a night without.

[Lochloosa]

8. I have to disagree with you on the sleep apnea.

I have sleep apnea and it would have killed me. Period. My oxygen level was getting so low at night the doc said I was done if not for the machine.

[eilen]

9. Keeping your brain awash in oxygen while sleeping is

not a resource waster. DVR is. Maybe you should try one of those air machines.

[madokie]

10. You don't use much electric if you cut you bill by 2/3rds by using a power strip

read my post and maybe go buy yourself a kill-a-watt meter. About 20 bucks on ebay or amazon.

Methinks maybe some truth is being stretched here :-)
And I'm not talking about me either :hi:

[XemaSab]

18. You smoke

and you're claiming that your roommate's oxygen machine is a waste of money?

[somone]

17. Recommended

[wtmusic]

19. I naively thought that because I turned off the cable box

it wasn't consuming power. Yet I just checked, and the top of the unit felt like a stove.

Timer is now installed...great tip. :thumbsup:

[joshcryer]

20. Yeah, those things make ovens, I was shocked at my brothers entertainment center.

His DVR, DVD player, cable box, all in one little cabinet. Opened it up to plug in the SNES and it was at least 20 degrees hotter in there than the ambient temperature.

I didn't mention it to him.

I have no TV and use a power strip for my computer. It goes off at night and when I'm not at home.

My electric bill is $20 a month give or take.