Cable boxes use more power than the fridge

[phantom power]

I suspected these things were energy vampires based on how hot they are even when they're "off." As usual, it's even worse than my already-low expectations. The bonus evil is that if you turn them off too long, the cable company will deactivate them, and you have to get on the phone to reset it.

According to a recent report (.pdf file) by the Natural Resources Defense Council, the cable TV boxes in your home may use more electricity than your refrigerator.

The average energy consumption of a typical household setup -- one high-definition digital video recorder and one high-def set-top box -- is 446 kilowatt-hours a year. A 21-cubic-foot Energy Star top-freezer refrigerator, on the other hand, uses 415 kwh.

And it gets worse. Even if you never turn them on, it's not going to matter much, because set-top boxes use nearly as much electricity whether they're on or off. How much is it costing us as a nation? Post continues after video.

...

In 2010, the electricity required to operate all U.S. set-top boxes was equal to the annual household electricity consumption of the entire state of Maryland, resulted in 16 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions, and cost households more than $3 billion.

http://money.msn.com/saving-money-tips/post.aspx?post=557278e9-fd30-48e3-aa8b-da82864b9c43

[pinto]

1. Thanks for the post. Never would have guessed it. Folks could unplug the boxes when not in use?

:shrug:

[phantom power]

3. you can, but if you leave it unplugged too long the cable company disables it...

on their end, and you have to call them to re-enable it. I know from personal experience x(

I've heard the max time for unplugging can be as low as 24 hours.

[sharp_stick]

4. Every time you turn it back on

the thing has to reboot and interrogate the cable system for the menus and such. The reboot time makes my 6 year old loaded desktop look like a speed demon by comparison.

[midnight]

2. Wow.. Cable is not very green is it?

[Turbineguy]

5. Another weird thing

After we got our new 42" LCD TV, I discovered it used more power than our old 36" Sony WEGA CRT.

[Enrique]

6. this story fits your user name :-) n/t

[mimitabby]

7. we got a new one that can be unplugged

our old one would have brain farts if we unplugged it, so i called and complained and in a couple weeks a new one came in the mail. WE turn it off every night, (on a power bar) and it's only on when we watch TV..

call your cable company!

[Gregorian]

8. Misleading title. Directv boxes draw 24watts. But still, it's basically true. Pretty shocking.

Typical boxes use HALF what an extremely frugal fridge uses.

But I had to run my own numbers before I believed it. Pretty incredible.

And computers are another subject.

[Serve The Servants]

9. Yeah, but the fridge won't DVR "The Walking Dead" when I'm not home.

I'd rather keep the lights off and unplug the refrigerator. There's no food in it anyways.

[pinto]

10. Mine does. There's always that green, zombie container, lurking...

:hide:

pinto, not the best housekeeper on the planet...

[madokie]

11. You know I've put a meter on my complete entertainment system

satelite box, stereo etc and I don't see this kind of numbers at all. I think someone is full of shit.
I don't mean you Phantom Power but the author of this little ditty. Personally I think you are an alright dude who is honest as the day is long but this is bullshit.

I guess I'll have to drag our kill-a-watt meter out and see if things have changed since I last did this experiment a while back. (a year or so) :hi:

[OKIsItJustMe]

12. It does seem incredible

We have an older Roku box. Certainly it must have as much logic circuitry as a typical cable box. One feature it is missing is an on/off switch.

According to http://www.missingremote.com/review/roku-xds-digital-video-player">this review, "The Roku XD|S measured around 7 watts whether idle or playing back content. When using the wireless connection, the power draw increased approximately 1 watt. When plugging in USB flash memory, the power draw increased approximately 0.5 watts."

[madokie]

13. I know my refrigerator uses a lot more energy than that

and its an energy star pretty new. 3 or 4 years old now
I don't buy what they're saying at all because I've put my meter on everything in our house to see how much energy they use and nothing is like is reported here. I think its more bull than anything myself.

[Kolesar]

14. The set top boxes with hard disk drives to record programs are the big energy hogs

Our simpler "terminal" takes a long time to boot up. I only unplug it when we go away.

[phantom power]

15. I've never done anything like measure and compare mine to my fridge...

The only thing I really know is, my cable box is always hot. 24/7, on or "off". Anything that hot all the time must be wasting measurable energy, and definitely more than just an average wall-wart.

I definitely don't claim to know if the "> fridge" claim is specifically true. If it's bogus, I apologize to the forum!

:dunce:

[madokie]

16. This goes around the intertubes every once in a while and thats why I checked ours out

a couple years or so ago and at the time I found that what they were claiming was bogus. Nothing on you personally and I hope I didn't imply anything like that.
I felt of our set top box thingie that records programs when you ask it to and ours wasn't warm this morning and after my wife went to work and turned everything off it still wasn't warm even after the tv was on for an hour and a half. I know that a refrigerator uses quit a bit of power 24/7. We don't turn anything off except the computer that is on a power strip and I only do it in case of an electrical storm and thats because I lost a power supply because of a lightning strike early on in my computer days.