TV Set Top Boxes Consume maximum electricity use 27 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity Know NRDC and Ecos study finding

TV Set Top Boxes Consume maximum electricity use 27 billion
kilowatt-hours of electricity Know NRDC and Ecos study finding

More than 80 percent of U.S. homes got the set top boxes in one or another form, approximately 160 million set-top boxes, nearly all of which are owned and installed by the cable, satellite, phone, or other service provider.


NRDC and Ecos partnered to better understand how much energy these devices use and what energy savings opportunities exist.

Pay-TV service providers control set-top box installation, configuration, software updates, repair, refurbishment, retirement, and resale.

The consumer, who pays the electric bill, has little choice about what box the service provider installs and how much energy it uses.

The average new cable high-definition digital video recorder (HD-DVR) consumes
more than half the energy of an average new refrigerator and more than an average new flat-panel television.

Even more troubling, when not displaying or recording video content, U.S. boxes draw nearly as much power as they do when in use.

Because set-top boxes are not in use most of the time, two-thirds of total energy consumption—or the equivalent annual energy output of six power plants (500 MW)— occurs when the boxes are not in use.

Innovation to reduce power consumption when not in active use—such as
has occurred with mobile phones, which also work on a subscriber basis and require secure connections—is sorely needed in set-top boxes

NRDC’s investigation and modeling of the energy consumption of pay-TV set-top boxes under business-as-usual and more energy-efficient scenarios revealed a startling fact:
unless the industry deploys more energy efficient designs, the electric bill to power these devices will increase by a staggering $3.5 billion per year by 2020.

Fortunately, development and deployment of energy-saving technologies and practices has the potential by 2020 to save as much energy as is generated by seven large (500 MW) power plants.

Findings of NRDC and Ecos Study -

1.
NRDC found that In 2010, set-top boxes in the United States consumed approximately 27 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, which is equivalent to the annual output of nine average (500 MW) coal-fired power plants.

2.
The electricity required to operate all U.S. boxes is equal to the annual household electricity consumption of the entire state of Maryland, results in 16 million metric tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, and costs households more than $3 billion each year.

3.
There are approximately 160 million set-top boxes installed in U.S. homes. Almost all of these boxes are owned and installed by the service provider (e.g. Comcast, Time Warner, Cox Communications, DISH Network, DirecTV, Verizon and AT&T, etc).

4.
Today’s set-top boxes operate at near full power even when the consumer is neither watching nor recording a show. As a nation, we spend $2 billion each year to power these boxes when they are not being actively used

5.
Digital Video Recorders (DVRs) are growing in popularity and frequently replace set-top boxes without recording capability. DVRs typically use around 40 percent more energy per year than their non-DVR counterparts

6.
Better designed pay-TV set-top boxes could reduce the energy use of the installed base of boxes by 30 percent to 50 percent by 2020. The big opportunities include: a) shifting to whole-home solutions that include a main box connected to the primary TV with either TVs specially-designed to access the video content stored on the main box or low-power thin client boxes that serve the same function, and b) having the boxes automatically power down to much lower power levels when not in use (e.g. in the middle of the night, or while users are at work).

7.
U.S. set-top boxes continue to use almost as much power when not in use as they do when in use. However, leading European service providers have begun to solve this problem in their newest boxes.

8.
Pay-TV set-top box national energy consumption has held steady as efficiency gains at the component level have been offset by the increased energy onsumption of advanced features.

9.
Satellite HD-DVRs in this study drew slightly more power than their cable counterparts, but this may change over time. Internet Protocol TV (IPTV), which is rapidly gaining market share compared to cable and satellite, enables the use of lower-power boxes. The most efficient U.S. HD-DVRs tested were AT&T’s IPTV boxes, drawing approximately 18 watts when operating (On mode) and 12 watts in light sleep state. European IPTV HD-DVRs demonstrated impressively low On mode power levels of less than 10 watts.

10.
Sky Broadcasting in Europe offers one of the best examples of an energy efficient set-top box. Their highly featured HD-DVR draws 23 watts in On mode and 13 watts when the user puts the box into light sleep state by pressing the power button on the remote. In light sleep, the box does not output or record video, but remains connected to the network and able to resume full functionality almost instantly. In addition, Sky set-top boxes default to a less than 1 watt deep sleep state each evening at 11:00 pm. In this state, Sky’s boxes wake for a brief period every half hour to check for new program recording requests entered by subscribers using smart phones. If there is no scheduled activity, the box will automatically return to deep sleep state. Sky’s customers experience a 90-second wake time when they press the power button to wake from deep sleep state, and they may disable this deep sleep feature if they choose.

Recommendations For Reducing electricity consumption –

1.
Meeting Energy Star Requirements Manufacturers are strongly encouraged to design products that meet or surpass ENERGY STAR Version 4.0 requirements as soon as possible.

2.
Employing Automatic Low-Power States Future products should automatically enter a low power state when the user is neither watching nor recording or downloading a show, and should wake up in a sufficiently short period of time to prevent customer dissatisfaction.

3.
Replacing Outdated and Inefficient Set-Top Boxes Service providers should accelerate deployment of new energy-efficient set-top boxes and make any needed changes in their “upstream” equipment to ensure the energy saving features are successfully utilized. Service providers are encouraged to shift to multi-room solutions that require only one main box and employ much lower power boxes (thin clients) to view content on other televisions in the home

4.
Providing Incentives at the Utility Level Electric utilities should consider providing financial incentives to encourage the development and deployment of energy efficient set-top boxes.

5.
Consider Regulatory Policies to Increase Set-Top Box Energy Efficiency Policy makers should consider establishing minimum energy efficiency standards for set-top boxes at the state or national level, or via an industry-led voluntary agreement similar to those established in Europe

6.
Bringing Efficiency to Local Markets As a means to drive demand for more efficient set-top boxes, local cable regulators should consider adding efficiency requirements to their franchise agreements. A simple means to do this is to require deployment of boxes that meet ENERGY STAR Version 4.0 or better.

The research performed to prepare this report was funded by a grant to NRDC from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Research and analysis was conducted by Gregg Hardy and Jeffrey Swofford of Ecos (ecosconsulting.com).

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Monday, June 27, 2011

Tag – Electricity consumption Set top box ndrc study

Source - http://www.nrdc.org