By Linda FelacoNo, I’m not talking about True Blood. Not even the fiftieth showing of Twilight on Showtime....
I’m talking about so-called set-top boxes for cable and digital video recording services. According to a new study reported in yesterday’s New York Times, set-top boxes have become so voracious in their energy usage that in many homes, their electricity consumption now exceeds that of the refrigerator.
Such devices are called “energy vampires” because they consume power even when they’re turned off. According to Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, so-called “standby” power use can total 10% of energy use in a typical home.
The lab has compiled a handy chart showing standby power use for the most common home electronics and electrical devices.
The good news is that there are more energy-efficient set-top boxes available, but they haven’t been widely adopted in the U.S. because customers don’t like having to wait for the devices to reboot when they’re powered up.
If you think saving over 400 kilowatt-hours per year of electricity (not to mention the related air pollution created by burning fossil fuels for power) is more important than having cable and DVR service instantaneously available when you turn on your TV, let your cable provider know. They won’t provide less blood-thirsty boxes if customers don’t demand them.