NRDC: Cable boxes guzzle more energy than new refrigerators
A report from the Natural Resources Defense Council details the staggering environmental cost of DVRing 'The Real Housewives of New Jersey' every week.
Image: Tanjila/Flickr 
Set-top boxes are the ultimate home energy vampires, silently sucking significant amounts of energy and money when nobody’s using them. The consumer, who pays the electric bill, deserves technologies without hidden costs. At a time when everyone is trying to cut waste from our budgets and electric grid, service providers shouldn't saddle their subscribers with boxes that unnecessarily squeeze their wallets.
Via [USA TODAY]
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Comments
another reason to cut cable besides wasting your life and being brainwashed...find a hobby and get outside and discover actual life/friends/hobbies/growing things.
"The consumer, who pays the electric bill, deserves technologies without hidden costs."
Uh - What "hidden" costs? The energy consumption of set top boxes, like all electrical appliances, is clearly visible on the label attached to the device.
The consumer deserves to be treated as though they were smarter than a box of damp rags.
Hmmm. "Americans collectively spend $3 million a year to keep HD-DVR boxes running 24/7" Let's see: there are roughly 300 million Americans, collectively. So this figure works out to...a penny per person per year.
Color me unconcerned. My switch to even a single CFL bulb will save me more in a year than my set top box will consume in centuries.
The rest of the stats in the article are similarly ridiculous, spun for emotional alarmist impact rather than to provide facts. Is this what.... More
The original referenced report pegs the cost to consumers as $3 Billion, not $3 Million - so, figuring based on 300 million Americans the per capita cost is $10.
Wonderful! ; / and they tell you you can't turn them off because they'll forget everything they know. seems like everything we humans do has a negative impact on the planet.
yes...you can turn the box off.....and yes it will retain everything you have.
anytime I leave for even a weekend trip, for my belief in safety's sake I unplug all electronic devices, including my cable boxes. Miraculously......... it's like magic!! all of my recordings saved back from even 2009 are still on my DVR.
I plug the box(es) back in, the pulse signal goes through and the box comes back on line; all features are restored quickly after that. That's why the DVR has a.... More
I'm not sure who you box supplier is, but we have a Concast HD-DVR and we have it turned off every time the TV is off (unless we have something set to record) and have never lost info or settings. We were never told not to turn if off. Everyone I know that has the same also turns theirs off when not recording or watching TV.
Have my cable box/dvr, hdtv, dvd, sound/speakers plugged into a power strip and turn that off everynite and when not using. I was surprised what a difference it made and this blog confirms it.
I ditched the dish a year ago and don't miss it even a little bit. Netflix, Hulu, Pandora, ESPN3, CBSSports, even the local weather are all online.
I never understand why Cable top boxes don't have power off buttons. Yesterday I had to reset the box and the only to do that is to yank the cable off the socket.
My comcast DVR remote has a power off button for the DVR
Put your ear near the DVR. You will hear it is constantly running. Connect it to a power strip and turn off completely when not in use. Also unplug stuff that has a power brick, like cell phones chargers when not in use. I did this a couple of years ago with all my appliances except stuff like the fridge for obvious reasons and I cut my balanced billing nearly in half.
"All in all," not "all and all"
can't you just power off the tv and then pwer off the cable box? That's what I do and I always thought off was off.
Turning a cable box off only turns off the output to the TV. It's still running, communicating with the cable company, downloading updates and in the case of DVR's even recording shows.
While I'm very surprised at how much energy cable boxes use, this article and its title are actually rather misleading. The title leads you to believe that 1 individual cable box sucks up more power than a new fridge but if you look at the graph, it's actually a standard HD DVR Set-Top Box PLUS an additional HD Set-Top Box that uses more electricity than a new fridge.
WOW...so landlords of large apartment buildings that include hydro in the rent will be taking hit for sure.
Turns out there are indeed EnergyStar qualified set-top boxes out there (they must be 30 percent more efficient than conventional models): http://www.energystar.gov/index.cfm?fuseaction=find_a_product.showProduc...
The problem here is that in most situations, set-top boxes are not available via retail and you're forced to take whatever the cable provider gives you. I'd call your local provider and see if they have any EnergyStar models
I wonder how much energy a standard cable box uses. Anybody have any information on that?
A listing of some options for reducing these power drainers would be great. Does anyone know of any? Or is powering down the only option at this point?
