The U. S. has one set-top cable box for every two people with and average box using more electricity in a year than an energy efficient 21 cubic foot refrigerator. U.S. cable companies say their priorities when purchasing equipment is functionality and price and efficient systems which reboot would be slow and more expensive. However experts in energy efficiency say technical solutions are possible, some at little expense. In Europe low energy systems reboot from deep sleep faster than some people do, in one to two minutes. One scientist said this about attitudes in U.S. industry, "I don’t want to use the word ‘lazy,’ but they have had different priorities, and saving energy is not one of them."
There are 160 million so-called set-top boxes in the United States, one for every two people, and that number is rising. Many homes now have one or more basic cable boxes as well as add-on DVRs, or digital video recorders, which use 40 percent more power than the set-top box.
These set-top boxes are energy hogs mostly because their drives, tuners and other components are generally running full tilt, or nearly so, 24 hours a day, even when not in active use. The recent study, by the Natural Resources Defense Council(NRDC), concluded that the boxes consumed $3 billion in electricity per year in the United States — and that 66 percent of that power is wasted when no one is watching and shows are not being recorded. That is more power than the state of Maryland uses over 12 months
from the NRDC and New York Times
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