[The News Bot]

With so much focus on 'green' issues right now, Sky has come up with a new feature designed to make its receivers more energy efficient. This feature - the first of its kind in the UK - is effectively an Auto Standby system that can switch inactive Sky HD and Sky+ boxes...

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[thelord]

I have a couple of Q's for this.

How much less power does 'Standby' mode actually use.

Does the V+ box from Virgin Media already do this?

[Manty]

Originally Posted by thelord

How much less power does 'Standby' mode actually use.

I would think a fair amount, given that it will shut down the hard disk and fans to save energy. This excerpt from the article above...

Apparently, once this feature is rolled out to all Sky HD and Sky+ boxes, the cumulative annual effect could save enough energy to light all the homes in Wolverhampton or power all the washing machines in Liverpool for a year.

[Dan Mac]

Watching Dragons Den the other week and there were 2 blokes who came up with a device for turning stuff off completely when not in use. Their "standby saver" idea was the first one to get backing of all the 5 dragons and if introduced worldwide would save a hell of a lot more power than it takes to do the scousers washing!

They were hopeful of licensing the technology involved to the major AV manufacturers so watch this space i reckon. Green issues are hot property so you would expect all the manufacturers to be interested.

Unfortunately the standby saver on Dragons den was a bit of a con. It doesn't save any energy, in fact it actually increases standby wastage by about 15%. They're using a rechargeable battery to power the standby receiver while the tellys off which is charged while the telly's on. So while they're right in saying no power is being used for standby, more power is required while the telly's on in order to charge the battery. Rechargeable batteries are only around 85% efficient meaning an extra 15% energy wasted.