Report: Pay TV boxes waste energy

Pay TV boxes hike electric bills, waste energy

Jun 14, 2011 - More than 80% of Americans subscribe to pay TV, and the 160 million set-top boxes installed in their homes cost $3 billion to operate largely because the boxes never go to sleep, an environmental group Tuesday reports.

"When not displaying or recording video content, U.S. television set-top boxes (STBs) continue to use almost as much power as when they are in use," said Noah Horowitz, senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, a Washington-based advocacy group that studied the devices. "The consumer, who pays the electric bill, has little choice about what television set-top box the service provider installs and how much energy it uses."

The study found that today's average new cable high-definition digital video recorders (HD-DVR) use more than half the energy of an average new refrigerator and more than an average new flat panel TV. Two-thirds of their total energy consumption – the equivalent annual energy output of six coal-burning power plants – occurs when they're not in use. {continued}

Report: Pay TV boxes waste energy