Cable boxes running up electric bills nationwide
PORTLAND, Ore. – Something in your home is running up your electric bill when you're not even using it.
It’s your cable box, and it could be using more energy than your refrigerator.
Cable boxes, also called set-top boxes, consume the same amount of energy required to run every home in the state of Maryland for one year, according to a recent study by the Natural Resources Defense Council.
The study also found that in 2010, cable boxes in the U.S. consumed 27 billion kilowatt-hours of electricity, which is equal to the annual output of nine average coal-fired power plants.
“Coal power plants put out a lot of mercury and other hazardous chemicals into the air and we all and our kids breathe those chemicals,” said Gregg Hardy with the Portland energy consulting firm Ecova. “They’re a really bad deal from an environmental perspective and a personal health perspective.”
There are approximately 160 million cable boxes in the U.S. alone and the cable industry is exploring ways to make them more energy efficient.
If yours includes a digital video recorder (DVR), it's using 40 percent more energy than a normal box.
So what’s the answer to the energy consumption problem? Turn it off when you're not using it?
“It doesn’t really drop power at all. It just pretends to go off,” said Hardy. “It goes from 30 watts to 29 watts.”
The only real way to turn off your cable box is to unplug it, but Hardy says that could cause you to miss software updates that keep your system working properly. It could also make you miss that show you're trying to record.
So if you want to drop your consumption, go ahead and pull the plug, but be aware of the timing.
with all the junk tv is anyone really surprised? it make my head want to explode and the cable box overheat
I wonder if they will do a story on how much electricity your coffee pot with a clock takes when not being used? Or how about your microwave? Your alarm clock? I mean you only really use it for a few minutes in the morning, if you even use one anymore.
How about that nightlight in the hallway?
Exactly what is this article trying to convey?
Lose the cable box. You can get just about anything either over the air, online, or via netflix. Sorry, cable and dish, but I have better uses for $100 a month, and I tired of 200 channels with nothing worth watching.
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 @ShallowEnder Not really acceptable if you're a sports fan, which is dependent on live TV.
I don't have a cable box. I don't have a TV. My electric bill is about $23.00 dollars a month. Most of my stuff is run off of 13.8 volt batteries, and a wind generator. My biggest expense is the satellite internet setup, but I use it for my job so it's a write off.
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@Greg Podolec Wow, who peed in your cheerios?
Cancel that old expensive cable subscription and use the alternatives, like Netflix, etc.
@James Gnau I'm not a movie buff. What I like to watch Netflix can't supply. I don't see any alternatives.
One would think that the 4,000 watt water heater would top the list due to the always keeping the water at set temp.
As compaired to an instant hot type water heater.
Much more cost effective.
The article states that having any type of device used nation wide will collectively use a lot of power.
Like a porch light or a street light (many more in use than set top boxes) it states relitive facts that are in consequence rather than in actuality
The instant water heaters in my experience don't save you any money. We had a standard gas water heater then switched to an instant. I still pay $40/month in gas during the summer months. It's the same as it has always been.
Well if Gregg is correct then....âCoal power plants put out a lot of mercury and other hazardous chemicals into the air and we all and our kids breathe those chemicals,â said Gregg Hardy with the Portland energy consulting firm Ecova. âTheyâre a really bad deal from an environmental perspective and a personal health perspective.â
WHY would we want to ship 200 million tons of it through the gorge daily???
The dust created would become air borne and all areas around tracks and terminal would be exposed..
And everyone knows it's going to china but we will make two or three minimum wage jobs and all the real money is the koch brothers that has the contract with china.
I know I know china can't just come in here and rape the land and destroy the environment like they do in other countrys.
It's a good thing the republicans are helping them do it to us right???
 @cptmac11 you have not idea what you are talking about.  It is people like you who are messing this country up.
@sortbait Yea up is not up and down is not down but guess what still smells like crap...
This coal deal
Build more nukes, and energy usage(and air pollution from generating that energy) won't be a problem...
"If yours includes a digital video recorder (DVR), it's using 40 percent more energy than a normal box."
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Not true for modern DVRs -- for example the DirecTV HR24-500, which is the most common one being used at the moment. Â It draws about 24-25 watts and only goes up a miniscule 1-2 watts during recording mode.
My power bill gets higher every year because of the rising rates, so maybe it's not the cable box after all.
Nope all these energy saving devices do is increase the profits of the electric companies. They have to produce less electricity and can charge more for it.
The author of the article doesn't understand the concept of power and energy.Â
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"Cable boxes, also called set-top boxes, consume the same amount of energy required to run every home in the state of Maryland for one year."
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The end of the sentence causes is incorrect and should be left out.
LOL TV? What is this 1993? TV blows.
everything plugged in that stays ready like the tv and cable or satellite box, your modem, your roku your stereo with the clock any microwave and stove, the coffee pot with clock all use electricity 24/7. that all adds up. if you want to save you must run a power block with a switch to turn them all off. when you turn them on they all have to reboot or be reprogrammed before they are ready to use.
Oh did I mention that when connected to the battery side of my APC or an Automatic Power Back up. This Device can save money in the Long Run. Plug it into the battery back up and it draws its energy from the power inverter. but take warning, if you have 2 devices sucking up a lot of current it will trip the APC units overload protection. this really gives you the bigger picture on what items suck what.
I don't get home from work until about 7:30pm, so I usually record KATU's 6pm news with my DVR, and watch it later on when I'm settled on the couch. If BigNeil is correct, and it's costing me $1.75 a month ... maybe I should stop doing that. I'm so glad the "problem solvers" helped me out today!! =P
Actaully this is very true because, even PS3 and game consoles can suck up a lot of power and when we Dixconnected our set top boxes our PUD bill went down 20 dollars. So don't be to critical on this.
@lee986321 I'd believe it if you left the PS3 on all the time, as they consume around 180 watts while operating. If you had it on 24/7, that's $0.08 of power every 5.5 hours, or about $10.60/mo in electricity.But there's no way your set top box would have any possible noticeable affect on your power bill. What it means is that there's something else in the mix that you're not considering (or it's simple correlation/causation). Set top boxes don't consume enough power to have that much effect on your power bill. It can't. You'd be lucky if you saw $2/mo by unplugging your DVR. Fluctuations in lighting usage alone will account for more than $2/mo change.Really, folks, this is very simple arithmetic. You will never get massive $ savings by unplugging your cable box no matter what your empirical evidence might indicate. Set top boxes don't consume enough power to have that large of an effect.
KATU, This is completely irresponsible to run this story. It gives no actual hard facts and misleads people into thinking this is where their energy costs go - it's *NOT*. Now let's look at some hard facts and not percentages and fearmongering text:
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Assuming that your DVR/cable box consumes 30 watts while on or off. Let's say it's running 24/7. Cost of electricity is $0.08/kwh. That means your DVR, at 30 watts, will cost you 8 cents every 33.33 hours. Given that a month has on average 30.42 days in it, that's 730.08 hours in a month, divided by 33.33 = 21.9 kilowatt hours for the entire month. Multiply *THAT* by $0.08 and you're saving a whopping $1.75/mo. That's it folks - $1.75/mo. Just don't think you're going to be able to show ANY appreciable change in your power bill (and if you think it is, it is, without a doubt something else, such as not having your TV on). Power bills fluctuate by more than $1.75/mo so it's so low it's not really measruable.You'll save a LOT more money if you switch to LED or CCFL lighting. Just remember that lighting and cooling/heating is an overhwlming majority of the power consumed. *THAT* Is the area where you should be focusing. Everything else is miniscule by comparison.
@BigNeil as soon as you reduce consumption the electric company see's it as a opportunity to raise rates. In the end the net savings is nothing.
 @mike  @BigNeil They can't raise rates unless they get approval by the PUC. Actually what the power company wants is for us to use LESS power because they have to supply what we need first and then can sell anything left over on the open market (California for example). This is why they offer you some money to make your home more efficient. It's not because they want less power used overall. It's because they want us to use less power so they can sell the balance at higher rates out of state...
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Anyhow, use power for what you think is worth the money. A cost of $1.75/mo for the freedom a DVR gives me to watch what I want, when I want, and skip commercials unless I see something worth waiting through is worth it to me.
@BigNeil For the most part I would agree with you, but you aren't factoring in 160 million (the "story's" "facts") set top boxes. By your math, that is 280 million per month in the US. Even assuming only a 50% usage rate, that still brings up 140 million monthly or 1.68 billion yearly.
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"Everything else is miniscule by comparison."
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I would never call a billion and a half in yearly waste 'miniscule'. Now, where this article really fails in my opinion is the complete neglect in mentioning just how much wasted load is consumed by most every electronic device when they are "turned off".
@BigNeil Thank you..good work on the simple math...simple math that a journalist should have been able to...and should have before posting this story..
The solution is to dump cable altogether and stream your content. Â DVR's are quickly becoming a relic.
@UtterReality Streaming sucks, what with the buffering and stalls. The quality isn't there, either.
@UtterReality At face value...that makes sense. But when Comcast is buying up all of the Internet Service Providers they can....and given their current battle with Level3 (ISP Provider)...I see trouble on the horizon. Can you say "monopoly"...????
I was just worried this was going to be another fluff piece about the Olympics and how the extra watching of them was destroying the planet.
So I can see this happening. It makes sense...especially since the cable boxes are starting to approximate the size of an actual computer.
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Having said that, KATU, why didn't you get a comment from Comcast on this story...??? Good journalists don't just parrot whatever the talking points are, they do their own research, and always offer the other side a chance for a rebuttal.
@Maximus I think you answered your own question....Good journalists don't just parrot whatever the talking points...
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Something isn't right here. If they take 30 watts and run 24/7 that is about $0.08 per day at $0.10 per KWH. That totals up to $30 per year.
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Looks to me like there is some funny math going on here.
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In looking at their web site they are calculating this on TWO sets rather than per set. Pretty deceptive since the article seemed to only talk about ONE cable box.
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If the house needs to be heated in the winter than having a set top box helping heat the house is a good thing. In that case the cost will only be an additional $15 per year.
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Always question the stats in stuff like this because a lot of it has an agenda and it just doesn't pan out when someone does the actual numbers.
Good to know. I guess that explains why when I got rid of the Comcast box (and service) my power bill dropped from $90+ to $65/month.
@molotovmouse Your power bill won't drop form $90-$65/mo because of the cable box. As RalphCramden pointed out above, it amounts to about $2/mo for the cable box even if it's a DVR. The more likely explanation is you don't have the TV on at all (which consumes 150-250 watts while on) and that's where your savings is.
Wow, yet another benefit of not watching tv.
There is already technology out there to reduce power consumption in cable boxes. Â The only reason cable companies don't incorporate the tech is because they are too cheap. Â They'd rather you spend more on electricity and burn more coal than to cut into their profits one fraction of 1%.
So what does a cable box actually cost in electrcity per month . . . pennies . . . should I unplug my stove so the clock doesn't waste electricity . . ?
 @seriously2 Cost is about $2 per month.
 @RalphCramden The horror! The horror!
 @seriously2 Seriously?  You do know about Google.com, right?  I found this in less than 10 seconds.  http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/howmuch.html
netflix ftw
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Reading is sexy.
Just cancelled my cable a few weeks ago. Really excited about saving that money- now I know I'm saving a teensy bit more!
@etab You're going to save about $2/mo if it's a DVR style and on 24/7. You won't even be able to gas up your entire car with the money you'll save over an entire year, so don't get too excited.
Thanks, BigNeil, but my excitement is because I'm saving over $150 on cable and internet bills. Now I know I'm saving over $152 :)
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@etab Even better! ;-)