Whether it’s on your phone, computer or television, odds are you’ve used an online streaming service to keep yourself entertained during quarantine. Streaming services such as Netflix and HBO have even released some of their shows and movies at no cost, allowing everyone to escape reality for a few hours.

If you’ve recently splurged on a streaming subscription, you’re not alone. Netflix reported it gained an additional 15.8 million subscribers over the past few months, bringing the total number of Netflix memberships to 183 million.

But could all those hours of streaming impact your energy bill? And does streaming your favorite movie harm the environment?

FROM DATA CENTERS TO YOUR LIVING ROOM

While movies and videos only take seconds to view, they require energy to stream from your smart devices. To watch your favorite shows, content travels from data centers, through a network of cables and routers, and consumes energy from your device of choice (smart phone, laptop, gaming console, etc.).

There have been a number of claims (stemming primarily from a 2019 report from The Shift Project) that the emissions generated by watching Netflix for 30 minutes is the same as driving 4 miles in your car.

However, many disagree with these numbers. The figures reported above are nearly 800 times larger than those reported by Netflix and almost double the estimated electricity consumed by data centers globally.

In fact, streaming services (including Netflix and YouTube) use a different type of data center called a Content Delivery Network (CDN), which requires less electricity than regular data centers. CDNs simply copy information (such as a movie on Netflix) instead of using energy to solve complex equations or search through massive amounts of information.

Additionally, it’s important to note that data centers, even the large ones that consume massive amounts of energy, only produce 0.3% of the world’s total carbon emissions.

THE EFFICIENCY OF STREAMING DEVICES

Streaming videos does consume electricity, meaning your all-day Netflix binge will likely impact your energy bill. However, streaming may be one of the more energy-efficient activities despite its electricity consumption.

According to findings published in the Journal of Industrial Ecology, the amount of electricity required to stream videos has been cut in half every two years since 2000. This is in part due to the increasing efficiency of streaming devices. For example, consumers tend to replace smart phones more frequently than devices such as computers—and these smart phones account for more than 70% of YouTube videos streamed each day.

Of course, smart devices vary in energy-efficiency. Streaming Netflix on a gaming console may consume more energy than using an Apple TV. In fact, studies show cable boxes consume way more electricity compared to streaming devices—meaning consumers who use streaming devices may see a lower rate on monthly energy bills.

WHAT DOES ALL THIS MEAN?

So, will binge-watching your favorite Netflix show hurt your wallet and the environment? Not in comparison to many other energy-consuming practices.

The truth is streaming content consumes energy—there’s no way around that. However, smart devices tend to be more energy-efficient than cable boxes and gas-powered cars. And that energy efficiency will likely result in lower energy bills each month compared to what bills could be when using more energy-intensive devices.

In terms of the environment, the current climate crisis means we should continue to work towards decarbonizing all aspects of society. The major energy-consumers are large corporations, factories and big data centers. However, cutting back on the amount of electricity you consume each day is a simple way you can help lessen the impacts of global warming.

In all, watching videos on Netflix and YouTube should not break the bank during quarantine—and popular streaming devices will likely continue to increase in efficiency in coming years. Just be sure to turn those videos off before you fall asleep at night.

Caitlin Cosper is a writer within the energy and power industry. Born in Georgia, she attended the University of Georgia before earning her master’s in English at the University of North Carolina at Charlotte.

This story was originally posted on SaveOnEnergy.

NEW YORK—The amount of energy consumed by the set-top boxes used to access pay TV in our homes is due to go down another 20 percent due to new commitments made by leading service providers such as Comcast, AT&T, and Dish Network. This progress is the result of a unique collaboration between the pay-TV service providers and leading environmental groups like NRDC that was signed in 2013 and just extended this week. To date, it has reduced national annual set-top box energy use by $1 billion and more savings are on the way as the older models are replaced by new, more efficient ones. 

WHY IS SET-TOP BOX ENERGY USE TRENDING DOWNWARD?

There are more than 225 million set top boxes located in U.S. households and they have a typical lifetime of around five years. These boxes enable customers to access pay TV from their cable, satellite or telephone company. Because these boxes continue to consume near full levels of power even when the user is not watching or recording a show, the energy and environmental impacts of their usage really add up. Back in 2012, America’s households were paying more than $4 billion in energy costs to operate these devices and powering them produced 24 million tons of climate-change pollution annually.

After extensive negotiations between two leading energy efficiency advocacy groups (NRDC and the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, or ACEEE), and the pay-TV industry (the service providers and the leading set-top box manufacturers), a joint “Voluntary Agreement for Ongoing Improvement to the Energy Efficiency of Set-Top Boxes,” or VA for short, was signed in 2013. The core element was an industry commitment to procure more energy efficient set-top boxes. Additionally, the service providers have invested in new architectures whereby a single digital video recorder (DVR) is connected to the main television and a much lower-energy-consuming box called a thin client is installed on the other TVs in the home instead of additional DVR(s).

The VA has been extremely effective and has already saved consumers $2.1 billion and avoided almost 12 million tons of carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions through 2016. The image from the 2016 VA Annual Report shows how the national energy savings, expressed in Terawatt hours (TWh), continue to grow as the older, less-efficient models are replaced with new ones. 

MORE SAVINGS ARE COMING

This month the initial VA was extended for another four years and once the next tier of the agreement is in full effect, national set-top box energy use will be almost 40 percent lower than in 2012, saving four large, 500-megawatt, coal-burning power plants’ worth of electricity every year. That’s equal to the amount of electricity consumed each year by all the households in Chicago. Because of the agreement, annual U.S. consumer savings will grow to $1.6 billion in energy costs by 2025.

Another great development is the industry’s drive towards “apps” whereby the user can access both live and recorded programming directly on their new Smart TV without a set-top box. This has the potential to drive down national energy use and related carbon emissions even further. Consumers win by getting rid of their set-top box and the related clutter, and will save $25 to $50 per year on their electric bills, depending on the type and age of the set top box(es) in their home. The service providers benefit from not having to stock and service millions of set-top boxes and also avoid having to send all those service trucks to install them in our homes.

WHAT CAN CONSUMERS DO?

Although customers almost always obtain their set-top box from their service provider, via a rental fee or via a bundled monthly service, they do have energy-saving options when signing up as a new customer or renewing ar contract before the apps are available. These include:  

• GET RID OF OLD DVRS - Older DVRs consume a lot of power and the new ones are a lot more energy efficient. If you have two older DVRs, they would consume as much energy per year as a new medium-sized refrigerator. You can turn in the old DVRs and request a new whole-home DVR for your main TV and a "thin client" box for your second and third TVs. The Thin client receives coentn from the new DVR and only uses a small fraction of the annual energy. To better understand how the energy use of your current set top box compares to newer offerings scroll to the bottom left hand side of www.energy-efficiency.us.

• INSTALL AN APP AND DITCH THE BOX - In the near future, many of the service providers will offer you the option of installing an app on your TV that allows you to simply click on it to directly access live and recorded content on your new Smart TV without the need for a set-top box. It will be just as easy as clicking on the Netflix app on your TV or mobile device. With this new digital platform, you can stream shows and have the ability to store your recordings, like the latest Golden State Warriors basketball game or episode of Sesame Street, in the cloud for future viewing. Check periodically with your service provider to learn when this option will be available in your area.
• • If you have an older Smart TV, you might not be able to download the new app once it becomes available. In this case, you can purchase a small, low-power device such as Apple TV or one of the offerings from Roku, Google (Chromecast) or Amazon (Fire TV) and use it to access the apps. These boxes or thumb drive-sized sticks use a lot less energy than a DVR or regular set-top box, and somewhat less than a thin client.
  • In all of these scenarios, however, you will still need the gateway box that includes the modem and router for receiving and moving content around your home.

WHY A VOLUNTARY AGREEMENT FOR SET-TOP BOXES?

The set-top box market is unique because rather than buying a box, consumers get the one that the installer has on the truck. The service providers are the actual purchasers and prior to the VA, they did not pay much attention to the boxes’ energy consumption because they weren’t paying the electric bills. Due to this unique situation and massive savings opportunity, we agreed to collaborate with the industry via a voluntary agreement. For other products, NRDC remains fully supportive of minimum energy efficiency standards set by the U.S. Department of Energy or state agencies like the California Energy Commission.

National efficiency standards exist for over 60 product categories, and they are on track to provide consumers and businesses with cumulative net savings of more than $2 trillion by 2035. In fact, a typical U.S. household saves about $500 on energy bills every year thanks to efficiency standards.

Noah Horowitz is the senior scientist and director at the Center for Energy Efficiency Standards, Energy & Transportation program.

This story originally appeared on NRDC.org.

(This story was updated by the author)

DALLAS—The Colorado Department of Revenue is clearing up some confusion among Colorado broadcasters about taxes on energy services being used to broadcast television programs. One Colorado station had been paying taxes on both electrical and natural gas services to operate the station from running broadcast transmitters and the control room to heating and powering the generator.

Ryan

By Colorado rule, a sales tax applies to electrical and natural gas services that are used for commercial consumption. However, there is an exemption for radio communication and all industrial uses. Looking specifically at the TV station, the Department of Revenue determined that the exemption should only apply to energy use used in communication, and that broadcast was a service and not industrial. This allowed the station to take an exemption on the energy services used to power the television transmitter, but energy used for lighting, computers, heating and other non-communication purposes are subject to tax.

“This is an excellent example of identifying a rather obscure exemption that was available, which would likely not have been readily thought of for this service industry,” according to Ryan, a global tax service firm headquartered in Dallas.

WASHINGTON—Set-top boxes have been going green over the last few years, and as indicated by a recent report from D+R International, it is also saving some green in consumers’ pockets. Per the report, consumers saved approximately $646 million in energy costs in 2015 as a result of the voluntary set-top box energy conservation agreement between pay-TV providers, consumer technology manufacturers and energy efficiency advocates. In addition, 3.6 million metric tons of CO2 emissions were prevented because of the agreement.

The Voluntary Agreement was approved in 2012 and was expanded in 2013 by energy efficiency advocates and the pay-TV industry. Since then D+R says that a near total of $1.2 billion have been saved in energy costs, while 6.5 million metric tons of CO2 have been prevented.

Noah Horowitz, director of the Center for Energy Efficiency Standards at the Natural Resources Defense Council, says that the new DVRs that make up the majority of set-top boxes use 36 percent less energy annually then set-tops did in 2012. He also highlights that the emergence of cloud and internet-connected TVs have eliminated the need for a set-top boxes altogether.

Additional findings from D+R’s report include that 99.5 percent of new set-top boxes meet the Energy Star Efficiency Standards; the expansion of multi-room DVR, network and cloud offerings; the introduction of energy-saving modes; and the growth of the use of apps to watch TV content, reducing the number of set-top boxes.

The participants of the Voluntary Agreement have launched a website for more information about its progress. View the website here.

Click on the Image to Enlarge

SAN FRANCISCO—There may be a price to improving the picture quality of TVs, as the Natural Resource Defense Council has revealed that Ultra Hi-Def TVs use an average of 30 percent more energy than HD TVs, which could add as much as $1 billion to U.S. viewers annual utility bills. The report, “The Big Picture: Ultra High-Definition Televisions Could Add $1 Billion to Viewers’ Annual Electric Bills,” analyzes the energy use of UHD TVs due to their superior picture quality.

According to the report, a national switch from HD TVs with 36-inch or larger screens to UHD TVs would result in a jump of annual electricity use to 8 billion kilowatt hours, or as much electricity generated by 2.5 large power plants. The switch would also create 5 million metric tons of carbon pollution because of the required extra electricity.

With TVs growing in size—one-third of all new TVs are 50 inches or more—TV power use increases with it. New developments like high dynamic range could also add to the input; an HDR version of a movie uses 47 percent more power than a 4K version of the same movie, according to the report.

The report does detail steps that can be taken to reduce energy use of UHD TVs. One step is to enable automatic brightness control, which on average causes 50 percent less power, though it varies by model. Consumers can also save money off lifetime energy costs by buying models with the ENERGY STAR label, using automatic brightness control, and avoiding the quick start feature on Internet-connected TVs.

“The national energy and environmental consequences of the transition to UHD TV will be profound unless the TV manufacturing industry devotes sufficient time and resources to improve the efficiency of the TVs brought to market,” said Noah Horowitz, director of NRDC’s Center for Energy Efficiency. “The good news is that there are steps consumers, manufacturers and policymakers can take to make sure our newest-generation televisions are not needlessly wasting energy.”

To read the full report, click here.