Standby Button to be outlawed in the UK

Monday, July 17, 2006

A few days ago All DVR News discussed whether you should leave your DVR on and the use of the standby feature. Interestingly it has been reported by the Times Online that standby functionality on certain electronic products will be outlawed in the UK in order to save energy. This will include DVR set top boxes.

No date has been given for outlawing standby functionality in the UK but the government is looking to meet environmental emission targets by 2020. It has been identified that electronic products being left on standby uses 8% of all domestic electricity in the UK. This is an exceptional amount considering that in most cases it is energy wasted.

The electronic products identified to have the standby button outlawed include lighting, set-top boxes (including DVRs), televisions, chargers, fridges, freezers, washing machines and computers. With something like the television the standby mode can easily be identified as a feature that is wasteful, however with a product like DVRs which are designed to always be left on then removal of the standby feature may not be a great idea since it allows power to be saved during periods of inactivity when shows are not being recorded. It would be wise to predict that the standby function would not be completely outlawed from DVRs but rather an alternative solution would be used which optimizes power saving during periods of inactivity.