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November 3, 2011
The PVR's 'dirty secret' cleaned up in B.C.
Posted by Tony Mauro
It was one year ago this month that I wrote a blog about the extreme amounts of energy consumed by the now commonplace, always-on, set top box. I'm glad to say there's good news to report.
TELUS first with the ENERGY STAR® PVR
Until now, you just couldn't get an ENERGY STAR qualified set top box, which we commonly refer to as a PVR. The problem is that no TV service provider had partnered with ENERGY STAR to deliver one.
TELUS is now supplying and supporting only the most energy efficient set top boxes for use in its Optik TV service. When you compare the Optik TV PVR to the conventional cable PVR, they're up to 50 per cent more efficient.
What does that add up to? Almost $125 in electricity savings over five years. And that's for households that only use one PVR.
Auto power down feature a bonus
TELUS will be implementing "auto power down" feature over the next few months on Optik TV. It's a feature that isn't required by ENERGY STAR, but TELUS has included it.
With auto power down, the set top box drops into a lower power mode when there's no activity for four hours.
One set top box, multiple TVs
Not only do the TELUS set top boxes consume less energy, TELUS' PVR Anywhere feature allows the PVR to serve several TV locations in a home.
This allows for multiple TVs to access content stored on a single PVR. That's quite the energy saving for those who used multiple PVRs in the past, and it's convenient because you don't need to set up multiple recording schedules.
Remote recording also keeps some of the energy consumption down. Using a web browser or smart phone. you're now able to select the shows you want to record without having to fire up the TV and search through the programming guide.
It may seem like a small amount of energy savings, but it can add up.
What if you don't want, or can't get, Optik TV?
If TELUS Optik TV isn't an option for you, ask your service provider whether they're planning to switch to ENERGY STAR PVRs, and let them know it's important to you.
To find out more about energy efficient set top boxes, including an energy use comparison chart, check out www.bchydro.com/pvr. You can also learn more about Optik TV.
Tony Mauro is a Power Smart engineer and frequent contributor to Unplug This Blog! and futureshop.ca's Tech BrandTalk blog.
