
Cable TV boxes become 2nd biggest energy users in many homes - swift
http://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-power-hog-20140617-story.html
======
steven2012
In the last couple of years, I've turned into a complete energy fascist,
especially after getting my own home and being eaten alive by my first few PGE
bills.

Ever since then, I converted to LED lights for everything, and bought a Kill-
A-Watt meter to figure out where the biggest hogs were. I even selected
components for my desktop based on energy efficiency (90+% efficient power
supply, low wattage CPU, graphics card, etc). I also had a dual CPU Xeon
processor VMWare server that was using 200W _idle_ , so I shut that down and
replaced it with a couple of Intel NUCs. I figure that the Xeon server was
costing me about $50/month in electricity alone, and could have easily been
replaced by a couple of cloud VMs had I realized sooner.

Also, it turned out that my 2005 LCD tv and my PS3 together drew something
like 400W when on. Needless to say I haven't turned on my PS3 in a while, and
I've been eyeing a Roku for whenever I do want to watch Amazon Video.

I've cut my energy usage from 700 kWh per month to just over 300 kWh, and I
haven't noticed any difference whatsoever in my lifestyle. I just cut out the
wasteful electricity usage, and I now have my LED lights programmed to be on
almost all night long around the house, turning off late a night
automatically. I'm seriously toying with the idea of getting an electric car,
since I don't think it would push me into Tier 3 even if I was recharging
every night.

~~~
revelation
Notice that 300kWh/month still comes out to roughly 400 watts used at any
given moment. Can you account for them?

~~~
mikeytown2
The fridge would be my guess

~~~
maxerickson
Heating or AC (or both) are more likely.

With modern refrigerators, hot water could also be a bigger fraction.

~~~
steven2012
My heating is natural gas, and I have no AC (SF Bay Area). My electricity bill
has decreased, but I'm still trying to figure out how to decrease my natural
gas bill, especially during the winter months. My theory is that my furnace
and hot water heater are very inefficient, so I'm going to look into replacing
those next year.

~~~
maxerickson
0/3 isn't that bad. Err, yes it is.

If the house is older than the furnace, the problem could also be lack of
insulation.

~~~
steven2012
Yes, lack of insulation is definitely a problem for me. I currently have no
insulation (including the attic because of a rat problem that was there before
I moved in). I do have wireless temperature sensors in various rooms to try to
figure out how my house reacts to various weather, and I'm not sure how much
adding insulation will actually help me, vs the cost of injecting insulation
into the walls, etc. I'm probably going to get attic insulation before summer
next year though, but to be honest, the temperature didn't get too crazy this
year, despite several days of 90-100 degree weather, so I'm a bit skeptical.

------
greenyoda
_" Cheryl Williamsen, a Los Alamitos architect, has three of the boxes leased
from her cable provider in her home, but she had no idea how much power they
consumed until recently, when she saw a rating on the back for as much as 500
watts — about the same as a washing machine."_

It just makes no sense for cable box electronics to draw 500 watts. I wonder
if the LA Times fact-checked this claim. Maybe the box had a switched outlet
into which a TV could be plugged?

And it's contradicted by this quote in the very next sentence:

 _" A set-top cable box with a digital recorder can consume as much as 35
watts of power."_

~~~
imgabe
A power supply rated for 500 watts doesn't mean the device draws 500 watts all
the time. Most electronics don't draw anywhere near their rated input during
normal use.

~~~
revelation
A power supply rated for 500 watts needs active cooling. I don't think set-top
boxes come with fans yet.

(Not to mention that components consuming 500 watts need cooling..)

~~~
mcpherrinm
I have seen (and thus heard!) set top boxes with fans. They are usually pretty
quiet, but they're there.

------
chrismeller
There are no stats in this article to justify the claim that it's the 2nd
largest consumer in your home. The architect seeing the 500 watt rating on the
back of one is immediately followed by "A set-top cable box with a digital
recorder can consume as much as 35 watts of power".

In fact, at 35 watts, according to this chart[1] it wouldn't even come close
to being the second largest consumer.

[1]: [https://www.efficiencyvermont.com/For-My-Home/ways-to-
save-a...](https://www.efficiencyvermont.com/For-My-Home/ways-to-save-and-
rebates/Appliances/Refrigerators/General-Info/Electric-Usage-Chart)

------
imgabe
> The devices use nearly as much power turned off as they do when they are
> turned on.

Well, the whole point of a DVR is that it does things when you're not there.
If you want it to record shows after you've turned it "off", then it can't
really be "off" can it?

~~~
mschuster91
It can, just program a RTC to raise an interrupt on a specified wake time and
the OS shuts down the CPU once recording is done.

~~~
vegedor
well, don't forget to send the cpu to sleep before waiting for the interrupt
as well

------
freshyill
We're about ready to cut the cord, and I've been suspecting our two Dish boxes
are huge hogs anyway. We recently got the first results of an audit we signed
up for through our provider (Pepco), and we were shocked to see that our usage
is well beyond the average. We were pretty shocked considering we have 100%
Compact fluorescent bulbs, very new appliances, and we're generally _very_
conscious of our usage. Our dryer is natural gas, as is our furnace and oven.
Our central AC unit is ancient, but it was a mild summer and we set it to not
be as cool during the day. The only computer on during the day is a Mac mini.

We're convinced something isn't right. I think a kill-a-watt will be a near-
future purchase.

------
mschuster91
This is why I'm happy for living in the EU.

While developing a smart-TV-controller appliance, I ended up researching CE
and other requirements which have to be met... and some of these actually set
maximum allowed standby power consumption!

I bet that the US market doesn't have anything remotely similar (and that TTIP
and friends will allow US companies to sell their shit in EU without adhering
to our rules!)

~~~
Palomides
actually we have the EPA's Energy Star certification system, which a lot of
products do try for.

~~~
mschuster91
Yeah but iirc this is not mandatory, so if you're a cable provider you don't
need Energy* as a marketing plus

~~~
maxerickson
It doesn't apply to STBs, but there are mandatory standards for many appliance
categories:

[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Appliance_Energy_Conse...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/National_Appliance_Energy_Conservation_Act)

[http://energy.gov/node/773531/index.html](http://energy.gov/node/773531/index.html)

That is going to meet some definitions of "remotely similar" (and fail
others).

Energy Star usually benchmarks off of those standards. There are also
adjustments, so Energy Star products from some time ago might not meet current
mandatory standards (but I haven't looked to find an actual case of this, just
pointing out that it could be).

------
tomrod
How bad is Roku?

~~~
hsckid
Roku's power input is rated 12V and 1A
[[https://www.roku.com/products/roku-3](https://www.roku.com/products/roku-3)].
This is maximum draw of 12W at any given time.

~~~
chrismeller
Keep in mind that that's the maximum input while it's in use... I don't think
there's any way to figure out how much it would use when off without plugging
it into a kill-a-watt.

------
stretchwithme
One more reason for the local community to own the last mile: more control
over such devices.

