DVR’s Are Huge Power Drain In U.S.
From the archive: published Jun 15, 2011, 15 years ago. Details may have changed since.
I leave my HD-DVR 24-hours a day, 7 days a week, 365 days a year and I’m not the only one, according to a recent study, DVR’s in the United States alone consume upwards of $3 billion in annual energy with HD-DVR’s using more than half the amount of energy required to run the average refrigerator.
During a meeting of the Natural Resources Defense Council a senior scientist noted:
“The consumer, who pays the electric bill, has little choice about what television set-top box the service provider installs, and how much energy it uses.”
It should be noted that in Europe Sky Broadcasting uses HD-DVR set top boxes that consume very little energy when idle.