Less is more for equipment on standby
Last July EU member states adopted a proposal by the European Commission for reducing standby energy consumption of household and office products. According to a 2005 study, approximately €3.7 billion installed products in the EU featuring standby/off...
Last July EU member states adopted a proposal by the European Commission for reducing standby energy consumption of household and office products.
According to a 2005 study, approximately €3.7 billion installed products in the EU featuring standby/off mode, leading to electricity consumption in standby/off mode of close to 50 TWh, corresponding to electricity costs of about €7 billion, and 20 million tons of CO2 emissions.
In simpler terms, electronic equipment on standby mode, that is not being used but still switched on and receiving a supply of power, can consume up to 20 per cent of the annual household total.
The European Commission is aware that these products compete on highly price sensitive markets and changing the standby-mode behaviour will incur an added cost to manufacturers. On the other hand, users are often not aware of the electricity consumption and costs of standby/off mode, which are usually small for a single product, therefore low power consumption in standby/off mode is not an important purchasing criterion. However, a typical household is in general equipped with dozens of products featuring the standby/off mode, and the resulting energy consumption and related costs are significant, as revealed buy the 2005 study.
PCs consume a considerable amount of power. Typically, the monitor consumes about 150 watts while the tower can consume between 600w and 800w. LCD TFT screens consume much less power than the older CRT monitors and less space. Associated equipment such as modems and routers consume power too, even when they are switched on but not in use.
The evidence is clear: there is unnecessary consumption of electricity which can be curtailed. The European Commission has made its first step towards achieving this goal.
With the utility bills arriving with the new revised tariffs, attempts are being made even in Malta to reduce such wastage as much as possible.
Contrary to popular belief, internet modems and set-top boxes (STBs) connected to TV sets do consume power on standby and this is nothing but waste.
"Melita is constantly focusing on reducing the consumption of these units in line with prevailing trends," a spokesman for the company told i-Tech.
"The older analogue set top boxes will be phased out over the next months and throughout 2009. Melita's latest digital STB HSC5170 (which has been in use for the past months) approximately consumes 8W in operation and on standby. The latest cable internet modem consumes under 7W of power. Powering down these units when not in use does not affect their operation when switched on, although for cable internet modems, these devices are normally "always on" by the nature of their service."
Asked specifically whether Melita recommends its customers to leave the TV set-top box connected to the power outlet and on standby, the reply was an emphatic "no".
A Go spokesman confirmed that its ADSL modems consume around 18W and a digital terrestrial TV (DTTV) box consumes around 7-10W. In the case of traditional Go fixed line telephone sets (not DECT phones), there is no electrical consumption as the service is self-powered via the network. Hence Go's telephony system works even when there is an electricity black-out, as the service is backed up by batteries at the company's exchanges.
Once again, the company's spokesman confirmed there is no negative consequence in switching off the DTTV box after switching off the TV set.
"This is not necessary with Go's TV service since any updates sent to the STB's will anyhow be received as soon as a customer switches his/her set top box back on from a full power-off state."
Another advantage of switching off equipment when not in use is the risk from a power surge as a result of a lightning strike is reduced.
"Most electronic and telecommunications equipment can be damaged by power surges, whether they arise from lightening strikes or other sources," the Melita spokesman confirmed. "Particularly in the case of data and telephony networks, there is an element of interconnection to private or third party networks. This sometimes leads to a situation where damages are caused by third party actions. The most common case for Melita locally is damage to residential modems caused when a surge is carried into the modem by a private internal telephone network which would have inadequate surge protection and grounding, to the telephone port. Use of isolators, surge protection and correct grounding (all of which can be installed easily using off the shelf products) would resolve the vast majority of these issues."
The Go spokesman revealed that so far, the operator has never seen any correlation between the number of faulty TV set-top boxes returned by customers and bad weather or lightning strikes. With regards to modems, any equipment connected to a copper network can be affected by lightning strikes.
"However, Go does not supply any lightning surge arrestors but just ADSL filters with the ADSL modem. Go does not recommend the use of such surge arrestors as such off-the-shelf elements could interfere with the ADSL service itself during normal operation."
According to a 2005 study, approximately €3.7 billion installed products in the EU featuring standby/off mode, leading to electricity consumption in standby/off mode of close to 50 TWh, corresponding to electricity costs of about €7 billion, and 20 million tons of CO2 emissions.
In simpler terms, electronic equipment on standby mode, that is not being used but still switched on and receiving a supply of power, can consume up to 20 per cent of the annual household total.
The European Commission is aware that these products compete on highly price sensitive markets and changing the standby-mode behaviour will incur an added cost to manufacturers. On the other hand, users are often not aware of the electricity consumption and costs of standby/off mode, which are usually small for a single product, therefore low power consumption in standby/off mode is not an important purchasing criterion. However, a typical household is in general equipped with dozens of products featuring the standby/off mode, and the resulting energy consumption and related costs are significant, as revealed buy the 2005 study.
PCs consume a considerable amount of power. Typically, the monitor consumes about 150 watts while the tower can consume between 600w and 800w. LCD TFT screens consume much less power than the older CRT monitors and less space. Associated equipment such as modems and routers consume power too, even when they are switched on but not in use.
The evidence is clear: there is unnecessary consumption of electricity which can be curtailed. The European Commission has made its first step towards achieving this goal.
With the utility bills arriving with the new revised tariffs, attempts are being made even in Malta to reduce such wastage as much as possible.
Contrary to popular belief, internet modems and set-top boxes (STBs) connected to TV sets do consume power on standby and this is nothing but waste.
"Melita is constantly focusing on reducing the consumption of these units in line with prevailing trends," a spokesman for the company told i-Tech.
"The older analogue set top boxes will be phased out over the next months and throughout 2009. Melita's latest digital STB HSC5170 (which has been in use for the past months) approximately consumes 8W in operation and on standby. The latest cable internet modem consumes under 7W of power. Powering down these units when not in use does not affect their operation when switched on, although for cable internet modems, these devices are normally "always on" by the nature of their service."
Asked specifically whether Melita recommends its customers to leave the TV set-top box connected to the power outlet and on standby, the reply was an emphatic "no".
A Go spokesman confirmed that its ADSL modems consume around 18W and a digital terrestrial TV (DTTV) box consumes around 7-10W. In the case of traditional Go fixed line telephone sets (not DECT phones), there is no electrical consumption as the service is self-powered via the network. Hence Go's telephony system works even when there is an electricity black-out, as the service is backed up by batteries at the company's exchanges.
Once again, the company's spokesman confirmed there is no negative consequence in switching off the DTTV box after switching off the TV set.
"This is not necessary with Go's TV service since any updates sent to the STB's will anyhow be received as soon as a customer switches his/her set top box back on from a full power-off state."
Another advantage of switching off equipment when not in use is the risk from a power surge as a result of a lightning strike is reduced.
"Most electronic and telecommunications equipment can be damaged by power surges, whether they arise from lightening strikes or other sources," the Melita spokesman confirmed. "Particularly in the case of data and telephony networks, there is an element of interconnection to private or third party networks. This sometimes leads to a situation where damages are caused by third party actions. The most common case for Melita locally is damage to residential modems caused when a surge is carried into the modem by a private internal telephone network which would have inadequate surge protection and grounding, to the telephone port. Use of isolators, surge protection and correct grounding (all of which can be installed easily using off the shelf products) would resolve the vast majority of these issues."
The Go spokesman revealed that so far, the operator has never seen any correlation between the number of faulty TV set-top boxes returned by customers and bad weather or lightning strikes. With regards to modems, any equipment connected to a copper network can be affected by lightning strikes.
"However, Go does not supply any lightning surge arrestors but just ADSL filters with the ADSL modem. Go does not recommend the use of such surge arrestors as such off-the-shelf elements could interfere with the ADSL service itself during normal operation."