Facing the prospect of regulation by the Environmental Protection Agency, cable TV operators and appliance manufacturers have announced a voluntary program to improve the energy efficiency of the set-top boxes that bring programming into your home. Some environmental advocates say the changes don't go nearly far enough.
In many respects, these boxes are the gas guzzlers of home appliances. Although modest in size, they may be using as much electricity as a new energy-efficient refrigerator, a study last year by the Natural Resources Defense Council found. That's because the drives in the devices are running at full tilt, or nearly so, even when you are not watching or recording a show.
There are more than 160 million set-top boxes in the United States, and they consume about $3 billion worth of electricity a year, two-thirds of it when they are not in use, the council says.
The new voluntary agreement, signed this week by a coalition of manufacturers and cable operators brought together by the Consumer Electronics Association and National Cable and Telecommunications Association, commits the companies to deploying more energy-efficient boxes starting Jan. 1.
At the most basic level, greater energy efficiency can be accomplished by incorporating light sleep and deep sleep modes – power-saving features that are routine on cellphones, for example. The coalition said that it would immediately download "light sleep" capability into 10 million digital video recorders that are already in American homes. That is somewhat paradoxical because part of the reason cable companies want the boxes to remain on at all times is so that they can download special offers, advertising and program guides at any time rather than have a box play catch-up when it is turned back on.
The group said it would testing next-generation equipment that could go into a deep sleep mode but made no promises to deploy it.
"Providing American consumers with innovative services that deliver great video content and reduce in-home energy costs is win-win for customers and participating companies," Michael Powell, thetelecommunication association's president and chief executive, said in a statement.
The industry group pledged that at least 90 percent of all new set-top boxes purchased and deployed after 2013 would meet the Environmental Protection Agency's Energy Star 3.0 efficiency levels.
Still, some environmental advocates noted that a tougher Energy Star standard was already in the works: the E.P.A. has said that it will institute a 4.0 version next July. That standard encourages providers to include a deep sleep mode that uses less than 15 percent of the energy that a box consumes when it is being used.
Noah Horowitz, the senior scientist at council, who conducted the 2011 study, said the new promises were inadequate. "It's good that cable and satellite companies recognize the need to provide consumers with set-top boxes that waste less energy," he said in a statement. "Unfortunately, their proposal is a far cry from what is needed to significantly decrease the $2 billion worth of electricity these devices waste each year."
"The set-top box industry can and should implement new design features that incorporate power-saving technologies similar to those in today's smart phones, which sip rather than gulp power when not in use," he said.
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