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Cable TV Boxes: The Sneaky Power Hog

July 9, 2014 by Lazy Man 1 Comment

One of the most surprising things I’ve learned in the past few years is that cable boxes require a ton of electricity. (That statement came out sadder than I intended it to.) I was reminded of this recently by a great story in the LA Times.

The small boxes can use as much as $8 of electricity a month, according to the article… second to only air conditioners. While $8 might not blow you away, it does add up, especially if you a bunch of televisions in your house.

The tragedy of the situation is that it is completely unnecessary. At it’s core, a DVR is simply a computer hard drive. The cable box itself is a very simple specialized computer that hasn’t caught up with the advances of computers. I switched out my cable box for a computer running Windows Media Center and a CableCARD and haven’t looked back. For me the electricity cost is dependent on the computer. Computers have gotten more and more power-friendly as people demand longer battery life.

The article covers that:

“Energy experts say the boxes could be just as efficient as smartphones, laptop computers or other electronic devices that use a fraction of the power thanks to microprocessors and other technology that conserves electricity. Ideally, they say, these boxes could be put into a deep sleep mode when turned off, cutting consumption to a few watts. At that rate, a box could cost less than $1 a month for power, depending on how much it is used.”

Imagine taking the appliance that uses the most electricity in many homes and reducing it to 1/8th of its consumption. That would be tremendous, not just for consumer’s wallets, but for the carbon footprint.

Alas, it might be years before it happens. My guess is that most people will be using the cloud to record their shows, which is a whole different ball of wax electricity-wise. Why can’t we have more efficient cable boxes today?

According to the article, there’s no incentive for cable companies. It is a broken system. Consumers have no choice which cable box they get (unless you count the workaround I used, but you have to be a bit of a tech-whiz). I can’t start up a company selling or renting efficient Comcast boxes. It’s a shame, because it would probably do well once people realize they could save $75 a bucks a year with my product.

The article quotes expert Steve Kelley who brought an analogy that really hit me:

“The nation’s shopping malls annually use hundreds of millions of dollars of electricity, he said, but their owners are often indifferent about reducing power consumption because tenants pay the bills. [Kelly said] ‘The mall owners often won’t consider spending $50,000 on a system that would pay for itself, because they don’t share in the savings.'”

The end result is that it is up to the government to create power requirement standards. The article ends on a bit of a depressing note. Energy advocates have gotten the cable industry to agree to voluntarily reduce power consumption by 10% to 45% by 2017, but this is just a small amount of what could be done today. By 2017, we will likely be talking about having laptops with a full 24 hours of battery. Even with improvements in that range, there will be so much more that could be done so easily.

Finally, there’s no penalty for non-compliance. So if the cable companies don’t do it, you’ll probably just hear a vocal minority complain… if you hear it at all.

Filed Under: Society and Money Tagged With: cable boxes, electricity

Save Money on Utilities

May 11, 2022 by Lazy Man 14 Comments

When I visited my family in Boston last week, Sunday surprised us with nearly of snow. It completely ruined our plans for the day. However, I couldn’t help but think about much money I spent on heat when I lived there. It wouldn’t be uncommon to have a $250 heating bill for 900 sq. ft. townhouse. I recall my mom saying that her 2200 sq. ft. place was around $700 or $900 last year during the coldest months. I know that’s a big difference, but at those numbers I became a little numb and my ear stopped working. I know the cost of oil is down, but with February lurking just a few days away, heating bills are on a lot of people’s mind.

How can you save money on Utilities? Let’s look at it two ways (note this isn’t going be a comprehensive list of tips – it would simply be too long):

Short-Term Ways to Save on Utilities

  • Get a Programmable Thermostat – This is one of the no-brainers that everyone will tell you. It’s such an easy way to wake up or come home to a nice warm home – yet you don’t have to spend an arm and a leg heating it while you sleep or at work. That’s around 16 hours a day of saving heat for some people.
  • Switch to CFLs – This is another you’ve heard 1000 times. I just include for completeness and the two people out there who haven’t switched.
  • Know How Much Electricity You are Using – Sometimes I wonder how much power I’m using. I don’t need surround sound to watch Thomas the Tank Engine do I (not that I watch Thomas the Tank Engine because there are no kids in my home.) How much power does that surround sound use? Plug in a Kill A Watt Electricity Usage Monitor
    and find out. If you don’t want to buy that, you can usually find some version of estimated power rating in the manual or on the manufactures site. I’ve read that they aren’t always accurate, so you might find that your mileage varies.
  • Kill that DVR – I love my DVR, but one thing that didn’t know is how much power they use. CNET.com has an article about DVR electricity use.
  • Put a Bottle of Water in your Toilet – Instead of going out and buying a whole new toilet, this is a way to use less water. Simply take a bottle, fill it up with something that will weight it down and put in the water tank. This will lower the amount of water that it takes move the bulby-thing (yes that’s my handyman technical speak) to the place where it shuts off the water. You’ll have to experiment with this, because obviously toilets are set to use the amount of water they do for a reason.
  • Save money on your landline phone
  • Cut the cable television

Long-Term Ways to Save on Utilities

There are some changes you can make to you home that will have a large up-front cost, but will start to pay for themselves over time. Some of them may never get there, so you may have to do some research. For instance, if you live in an area of no wind, setting up a windmill isn’t going to do a whole lot for you – other than waste your money.

  • Downsize Your Home – It’s not easy to heat a McMansion. Sure you can shut off some rooms, but you’ll need to heat them at least minimally so the pipes don’t freeze. And if you aren’t going to heat the whole McMansion, why buy it? Not that saves on utilities, but my wife is quick to point out, “Who is going to McClean the McMansion?” Having a McMansion is certainly not the Lazy way.
  • Insulate Your Home/Attic – Heat rises so why not trap it in by insulating your home. If you are staying in your home for a good length of time (and you live in a cold climate), it should pay off for itself in a few years.
  • Get Some New Windows and Shades – They are doing some amazing things with windows these days. You get triple pane glass with gas, and probably some other technical advances I don’t know about yet (since I rent). I looked into this a few years ago for my condo and it seemed like it might be worthwhile. If you are lazier like me, you could look into weather-stripping your windows. Another cheaper fix for the windows may be to get some insulating shades. They make some hexagon shaped shades that you can get at Home Depot. They are much easier to install yourself and can really make a difference.
  • Solar and Wind – A few people are starting to install windmills, but I’m not sure the technology is there yet. Plus your neighbors may not appreciate the view of a windmill (but maybe if it’s done right…?). Solar panels are starting to make sense in some areas. If I knew I was going to live in Silicon Valley for a number of years and it made sense to buy a home, I’d definitely look into solar power. I’ve even seen them pop up in places not known for their sunshine – like Boston.
  • Get a Dual Flush Toilet – When I was in Australia you couldn’t find a toilet without this feature. For some reason, I’ve seen it in the United States only once. If you don’t know what a dual flush toilet is, I’ll just say that you can choose to use less water if your “activity” required it and more for other “activities”.
  • Move to a Better Climate – It may cost you more to move to a place with less drastic changes, but it could be worth it. We moved from Boston to Silicon Valley and instead of paying around $150/mo. or heating and air conditioning, we pay closer to $50/mo. Those are estimates… during extreme months like February and August, the difference seems a lot more pronounced.

For more tips see: Porch.com’s advice on utility bills

Filed Under: Save Money On..., Spending Tagged With: CFLs, electricity, programmable thermostat, save money, solar, wind

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