NRDC Research: U.S. Set-top Boxes Consume 27 Billion Kilowatt Hours Annually

Set-top boxes deployed in the U.S. consume about 27 billion kilowatt hours of electricity a year, equal to the annual energy output of nine coal-fired power plants, the Natural Resources Defense Council said, citing its own research. This energy use costs consumers $3 billion a year, and results in about 16 million metric tons of CO2 emissions, the group said in comments on the EPA’s final draft of revised specifications for cable, satellite and IPTV set-top boxes.

The “most troubling” issue is that a majority of the boxes on the market are drawing “nearly as much power when in sleep mode as when actively displaying or recording content,” NRDC said. “The only way motivated consumers can currently significantly reduce the amount of power these devices consume when they are not using the box is to physically unplug them, an inconvenient and impractical solution.” The EPA has sought to address this issue by offering incentives for boxes that include an advanced energy savings feature called “deep sleep,” the group said, saying it supports the agency’s plans to make the feature a requirement in future specification revisions.

NRDC said it supports the ability of the end-user to disable deep sleep, but wants the EPA to “clearly state that the user should not be encouraged or prompted by the device to disable deep sleep functionality at any time.” Making the feature effective depends on a majority of users keeping auto power down enabled, it said. “Disabling it should remain an exception for users with specific needs.” The agency should also make clear the manufacturers should ship boxes with deep sleep capability enabled by default in order to qualify for incentives, the group said.

DirecTV urged the EPA to “not break tradition by setting an effective date” for the revised box specification less than nine months after it’s finalized. Motorola sought at least nine months for stakeholders to conform to the new specification, saying the effective date shouldn’t be set before Oct. 1.