[soupcxan]

I recently upgraded to digital cable and have a cable box from TWC for the first time. I noticed that the box always feels quite warm to the touch, regardless of whether I'm using it or not. So I hooked it up to my kill-a-watt and found that it draws about 20 watts all the time. 20 watts / 1000 * 24 hours * 365 days * $0.11/kwh = $20 per year just to have the thing around.


Now $20/year is not a significant amount of money (although if I saw a $20 bill laying in the street I would stop to pick it up) but this level of energy usage, even when the box is off, seems wasteful to me. I understand that it is probably downloading guide data or something even when I'm not watching TV but does it really need to draw 20 watts to do so? And why is it putting out so much heat? Seems most of the energy is just going into the air (adding to the load on the air conditioning).


Anyone know why this is?

 

[Rory Boyce]

It may be worse than that if you live in an area where you need air conditioning you are having to pay some more to get the heat it produces out of the house. Of coarse in the winter it is providing some electric heat but of coarse for most people that is the most expensive way to heat the house.

 

[coyoteaz]

The box is always on and decoding whenever it's plugged in. The power button simply enables and disables the output to the TV, and even then, most boxes now put out a solid black screen rather than actually shutting off the output circuit. This is done so the TV doesn't detect the loss of input and switch to another input, or start showing error messages.


One reason for this might be the ability to receive EAS messages and automatically switch to active mode. I've seen my FiOS TV boxes automatically turn on at 2 or 3 in the morning with the weekly EAS test.

 

[jspENC]

Just unplug when away from TV for significant amounts of time. Only downside to that is it takes a while for the thing to load up again.

 

[Panth1]

I think they are always on so the cable company can control them. They contain software and channel mappings that may need to be upgraded during the early a.m. and having them always on allows them to do it.


Fox example, when we first got channel 1 on demand, Comcast was rebooting our boxes around 2am every other day with new software updates. Powering on the box then made it download the new software. Otherwise, it wouldn't happen unless the user unplugged the power themselves.

 

[walford]

The disk drives in almost all of the current generation of PVR units are in standbye 24x365 in order to accept downloads or for scheduled recordings. New Energy Star standards have been developed which will require that the disk drives be spudown.

 

[spwace]



Quote:
Originally Posted by jspENC /forum/post/16894339


Just unplug when away from TV for significant amounts of time. Only downside to that is it takes a while for the thing to load up again.

I can't speak for every box and provider, but with Comcast when you unplug the box you lose the guide info and it needs to download it again, which takes a long time.

 

[ChrisG90]

I have a Scientific Atlanta 4250HD box that uses 19w while in standby and 18w while ON.

I thought it was defective when left off/standby and its surface became almost too hot to touch for more than 3 seconds.


I wonder how these companies passed the Energy/FCC or whoever give out licenses for home appliances

 

[walford]

I am not aware of any Energy/FCC licenses required for PVRs.

AFAIK UL electrical safety standards do would apply however.