Muzzling the Power Guzzler at Home

The STB and DVR are your top power wasters (see bit.ly/STBpower), even more than the fridge. Even when you put them on standby, they remain always on, to receive notifications, or for pre-set recordings.

The average STB draws 10-15 watts in use, and nearly the same on standby. For a DVR (like a Tata Sky HD Plus) that's 20 watts, both in use and on standby. That's over 175 units (kilowatt-hours) in a year, or a minimum of Rs 800 on your bill for each set-top box.

It all adds up, all those devices in your AV console. The home theater, media player, and other gadgets. The TV at the center isn't so bad: it drops to 1 to 2 watts on standby (older sets could draw between 5 and 10 watts on standby).

So, your AV console around your TV is wasting 30 to 40 watts of power on standby-all night, all day, every day.

How do you prevent it? By switching off power when you're not watching TV.

I use a simple solution: not elegant, but it works. I power everything in my AV console via two power strips-one for things I need to keep always on (cordless phone and wireless router) and the second one for devices that I want to shut off (TV, DVR set-top-box, IPTV set top box, media player, Apple TV, home theater system). This second power strip's switch should be easily accessible.

A second solution: a device that switches off power when you switch off your TV. A Mumbai-based company makes one (see greenstarindia.com); I've found it quite simple to set up and use. It has two power sockets, for the TV and the STB. It learns your TV remote's on/off signal. Powering your TV off with the remote will cause the GreenStar device to cut power to both TV and STB. I was also able to plug in a power strip into one of the sockets, to power my media player, Apple TV, and home theater so that they'd also switch off with the TV. (See PCQ's review next month).

The third solution is elegant; the easiest to use. A power strip with a 'master' outlet for your TV, and five slave outlets for your set top box, media player, etc. When you switch off TV in the normal way with its remote, the strip senses that the TV has powered down and switches off the slave outlets, and all plugged-in devices. Power up your TV, and all the other devices come back on.

Simple. Nothing to set up or learn. Yes, it does leave the TV running in standby mode, but modern TVs draw just 1 to 2 watts on standby — 10 units a year — so that's fair enough. Belkin sells such a power strip for $25 (bit.ly/smartAV) but not in India, and you get it only with US or EU power outlets.

Whichever you choose, the little investment is worth it: save money, and protect your expensive electronics from power spikes and fluctuations by keeping them mostly off.