WASHINGTON—TV manufacturers, including Samsung and LG, and environmental advocacy groups have put their heads together to try and tackle what is causing the increase in national TV energy use. Their solution, a new testing method for measuring TV energy use.

Natural Resource Defense Council's (NRDC) Director of the Center for Energy Efficiency Standards Noah Horowitz shared in a blog post that TV makers, CTA and environmental advocacy groups have announced a partnership to achieve three primary goals: 

• Create a more accurate test method for measuring TV energy use;
• Test a cross-section of TVs with the updated test; and
• Develop a set of efficiency targets designed to drive down national TV energy use, while preserving the user’s viewing experience

According to a 2017 study, 285 million U.S. TV households consumed roughly 35 terawatt-hours (TWh) of electricity annually. That adds up to $4.5 billion in electricity costs, equal to about a dozen 500 MW coal-burning power plants, per NRDC.

A driving factor in the large energy use is growth in average TV sizes—with TVs 50 inches and bigger becoming the norm—and new features available with TVs, including internet connectivity, higher resolution screens and voice command capabilities through a wirelessly connected speaker.

The design of these new features is key, Horowitz points out. He gives the example of TVs being often going into standby mode, waiting for a command to quickly turn on, instead of being properly turned off. This can double a TV’s annual energy use, Horowitz says. There can also be issues when people change a TV’s default settings, which often automatically enable energy saving modes but are switched off when a new setting is activated.

“To its credit, the TV industry now appears committed to finding fixes to the current test method for measuring TV energy use and to encourage policy makers to adopt the updated test method in the future,” Horowitz wrote. “This way, the manufacturers’ reported energy use for their TVs will better reflect the actual levels typically experienced by consumers—and manufacturers can compete for those customers on a level playing field regarding a TV’s efficiency and operating costs.”

Horowitz also says that the EPA is updating its requirements for ENERGY STAR-labeled TVs, identifying the most energy efficient models for consumers.

The new test is expected to be completed in the next several weeks, according to Horowitz. The TV industry will then test new TVs and share the data with the environmental advocacy groups to begin discussions on establishing potential energy use limits for new TVs to drive down economic and environmental costs.

Horowitz estimates that these measures could ultimately save billions of dollars in utility bills for consumers and millions of tons of avoided carbon pollution.

For more information, read Horowitz’s blog.

SAN FRANCISCO—How much would you be willing to pay to stop having to dig through your couch to find the TV remote? According to a new report from the Natural Resources Defense Council, the cost may actually be more than purchasing a smart speaker to hook up and control the TV.

In its report, “Energy Impacts of Smart Speakers and Video Streaming Devices,” the NRDC does find that most smart speaker (i.e. Amazon’s Alexa) and video streaming devices are energy efficient. Despite being turned on at all times, most only consume $1.50-$4 worth of electricity annually as smart speakersuse less than 2 W of electricity while they are in standby mode waiting for a command, while streaming devices (Roku, Google Chromecast) consume 3 W or less in standby.

But that conservation can be made moot if consumers are linking smart speakers to some TVs to access voice commands. When connected with some newer TVs, pairing a smart speaker with the TV can result in standby mode generating 1 W to more than 20 W, possibly doubling a TV’s overall annual energy use and add about $200 in energy costs over a TV’s lifetime. More broadly, such energy increases could have an impact on the annual national electricity consumption could increase by three to six coal-burning power plants’ worth of electricity. As a result, $1.3 billion to $2.5 billion could be added to U.S. consumers’ electric bills each year with one-fourth or half of TVs connected to smart speakers.

To address this, NRDC says that TV manufacturers must address this problem with updated designs.

“Our report should be a wake-up call for all TV manufacturers to improve their products to support hands-free operation without needlessly sucking massive amounts of energy as the next big energy vampires in our homes,” said Noah Horowitz, co-author of the report and director of NRDC’s Center for Energy Efficient Standards. “Up to $2.5 billion in extra electricity costs would be an appallingly high price for consumers and the environment to pay just to wake our TVs with a voice command.”

The full report is available here.

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)