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Vinson Kurian

Thiruvananthapuram , Nov. 19

THE phenomenal growth in sales of electronic (white) goods is generally construed as indicative of the purchasing power of the `burgeoning middle class'.

But, there is at least one group of people that is not impressed by these stats, even by remote chance! They are the energy conservationists, who blame the swelling tribe of the `remote-wielding' purveyors of electronic goods for their worries.

The reference is to the increase in `connected load' as consumers stock up televisions, VCRs, VCDs, DVDs and so on. Most of them invariably come with a user-friendly accessory, the `remote-control' that helps throw in the digital effect in full.

Here's where the rub lies.

The `standby power' (or leaking electricity) that these innocuously sleek tools consume is now threatening to emerge as a major cause of wastage of precious electricity, according to Mr R. Harikumar of the Energy Management Centre, Kerala (EMC-K), an autonomous centre under the Department of Power, Kerala.

`Remotes' are the real hidden `power eaters' of the digital era, Mr Harikumar told Business Line here. "Most of us fail to understand that when appliances are switched off through remotes, some standby power is consumed by the system's power supplies.

This power converts alternating current to direct current for features like clocks, remote-control operation, and keeps the equipment ready enough to obey the next signal from the remote, in most cases after several idle hours. Depending on the variety of functions, different appliances use significantly different amounts of power."

Standby power (or leaking electricity) can be defined as the electricity consumed by end-use electrical equipment when it is switched off or not performing its major function.

The most common users of standby power are TVs and video equipment with remote controls, electrical equipment with external low-voltage power supplies (cordless telephones) and office equipment and devices with continuous digital displays (fax machines).

The actual power drawn in standby mode is small, typically 0.5 Watt to 30 Watt. But, the problem becomes serious when standby power is consumed 24 hours a day, and when more and more appliances that consume standby power get added to homes and offices.

Standby power consumption in the residential sector in Europe has been well documented in several surveys, and it ranges from 30 W to 60 W per household.

In OECD countries, it represents 1.5 per cent of total electricity consumption (the leaking electricity is about 128 billion units, almost one-fourth of the total electricity generation in India) and contributes 0.6 per cent of carbon-dioxide emissions.

Unfortunately, no detailed study on consumption of standby power has been attempted in South Asia, including India and Pakistan, South America or Africa.

Going by one argument, standby power consumption could be more in India due to usage of voltage stabilisers; alternatively, it could even be less with comparatively less penetration of colour TVs and other video/audio equipment in rural areas or predominance of less-sophisticated older models.

DTH TV can be a big drain

With the introduction of direct-to-home (DTH) television in India, set-top boxes (STBs) will emerge as the new source of standby power consumption, says Mr Harikumar of EMC-K.

DTH service typically provides 100-plus TV channels, which can be received with a personal parabolic dish of 45-60 cm and an STB without intervention of cable TV operator. STBs have on-screen user interfaces and are interacted through the use of a hand-held interactive keypad, which is an advance version of a remote control.

STBs also have facilities for upgrading software such as browsers and electronic program guides, hard-drives and smart card slots for purchases and e-commerce applications. With all these facilities, STBs may remain in standby mode continuously, consuming up to 25 Watts of power.

It is learnt that the Centre favours `open architecture' (that will permit any consumer to change over from one DTH platform to another by just replacing the `smart card') for STBs. The Bureau of Indian Standards had been asked to come out with specifications for STBs for DTH. However, it is not known if the specifications would suggest a limit on the standby power.

According to Mr Harikumar, it is for the user to take the remedial action by either changing over to technologically superior low-leak devices or `simply getting up and switching off the device' after use.

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