Looking for a creative way to save energy? Don't forget about your cable box. The television might not be the first device most people think of when it comes to energy conservation, but that's about to change. A voluntary agreement among manufacturers, cable providers and the federal government calls for big efficiency overhauls in the set-top boxes that bring cable and satellite signals into consumers' homes.

Meeting Efficiency Goals

Certain cable boxes can use half as much electricity as a refrigerator, according to the Energy Collective, so there's a lot of room to conserve. And a full 85 percent of American households have some kind of set-top box, according to the National Cable & Telecommunications Association and the Consumer Electronics Association. In households with multiple set-top boxes in different rooms, there may be a shocking amount of electricity consumed merely by piping in everyone’s favorite shows.

Set-top boxes don't have minimum federal standards, so the voluntary agreement is an alternative way to bring all the products up to a certain energy conservation threshold. Since technology changes so quickly in telecommunications, and the federal regulatory process is so cumbersome and slow, voluntary compliance allows stakeholders to advance efficiency goals without waiting for new regulations that might be outdated by the time they are enacted.

The agreement was put into place last year and should save consumers $168 million in electricity bills annually, according to the NCTA annual report on the program. Even more stringent voluntary standards will kick in in 2017.

Cutting-Edge Efficiency

The highest standards are found in the federal Energy Star program, which certifies set-top boxes that are 40 percent more efficient than average models. If every cable box hit the Energy Star benchmark, the program claims, consumers would save a total of $1 billion annually and reduce greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to taking two million cars off the road.

Most boxes are always drawing power, even when they’re in standby mode. One way in which more advanced models save energy is through deep sleep mode, which consumes a maximum of 15 percent of the power used during active mode. Automatic power-down is another feature that many new boxes include.

Providers are also offering “thin client” boxes for homes with multiple televisions. Under this arrangement, the main cable box may use a fair amount of electricity, but the additional boxes would consume considerably less.

Of course, most people don't buy their own cable boxes, so to make sure you’re getting an efficient model, remember to ask your cable provider. Your cable company may also be willing to upgrade your existing box or swap it out for a more advanced model.

Everyone wants to save money.  With the economy, still slow and unemployment high, family and business budgets are tight.  Thus, we’re all looking for ways to lower our bills, and there aren’t many bills more devastating to budgets than the electric bill.  Not to mention those bills during a brutal Texas summer.

At the same time, people are finally beginning to understand that the damage we do to our environment is harmful in the long run, and are trying to find a way to reduce our impact on the planet.  A lot of the time it seems like we must choose between saving money and helping the earth.  That is simply not the case when we’re talking about options for lighting your home or business.  The employees of my Plano electrical service tell you that you can actually do both at the same time, and that it‘s as simple as changing a light bulb!

Light bulb shopping has changed a lot in the last ten years.  Our choices are no longer limited to the incandescent (and sometimes halogen) bulbs we all grew up with.  Today fluorescent CFL lights are available in almost every store, and LED lights are starting to become more widely available as well. These bulbs use far less energy to create the same amount of light, which ultimately means less energy you have to pay for.  The savings can be seen with a single bulb.

For example, if you replace just one 60-watt incandescent bulb you use four hours each day with a 12-watt LED equivalent, you’ll wind up saving almost $10 a year on average! These bulbs can save you money and hassle in ways you might not think of at first.  For instance, LED and CFL bulbs produce very little heat when compared to an incandescent bulb which means that they don’t attract insects, and that your air conditioner doesn’t have another heat source in your house to cool down.

There are electrical benefits to having cooler bulbs too: less heat being generated by light bulbs means that there’s less heat stress being placed on the sockets and fixtures they’re attached to.  Less stress on the fixtures means that they have a much longer life, and that you’re saving money you’d otherwise have to spend on repairing or replacing them.

All these choices beg the question of which type of bulb is better.  From an electrician’s view, they’re both superior to the old kind of bulbs.  Personally, I think LED lights are superior to fluorescent CFL lights right now.  The technology that makes CFL bulbs work is still primitive.  Think of what cell phones looked like in the 1980‘s compared to today; right now, the CFL bulbs you can buy are the fluorescent bulb version of those old brick phones. LED lights have very distinct advantages:

These reasons are why I generally recommend LED bulbs; they’re more earth-friendly, easy to dispose of, use less energy than even CFL bulbs, and last a very long time.  They can be more expensive than other bulbs, but you’ll save enough money on your power bills in the long run to come out well ahead!

Emergency power systems are vital for any business or IT operation to keep mission critical systems operational and avoid equipment damage during a power failure. Don Jennings, President of Network Computing Technologies discusses the value of emergency power systems in preventing the loss of electricity to data sources and other IT operations such as servers, point of sale systems, PC’s, routers, switches, telecommunications, and other equipment. The Indoor Generator offers IT professionals an affordable solution that provides hours of backup power at a fraction of the cost of current UPS products on the market. For more information on the Indoor Generator, visit the ElectricMan Inc. website at www.electricmaninc.com.

Do you ever lie awake at night thinking about new ways to cut back on your energy consumption? You'll soon be able to rest soundly, because there's a new piece of technology that can make all your dreams come true. One of the trendiest ways to save energy with your home electrical work is by disaggregation, or breaking down consumption appliance by appliance so you can easily identify where you need to cut back. Now there's a way to hack into your circuit box and make disaggregation easy. Read on to learn more.

Reading the Data from the Circuit Box

There are a few different ways to acquire the data you need on the energy consumption of your various appliances and electronics in order to make informed decisions about conservation. One is to purchase all new smart devices, linked up to the Internet of Things, that let you monitor their performance individually. If you don't want to replace all your appliances and equipment just yet, you can purchase smart plugs that monitor the electricity usage of whatever you connect them to. There are also utility companies that are piloting disaggregation programs in homes that are hooked up to smart meters.

There's at least one device available, however, that allows you to look at all your appliances at once, without having to buy new equipment or rely on your utility company. The Neurio is a gadget that connects to your main circuit panel and monitors all the electricity that goes out through the various circuits in your home. Next, it sends the data to the Neurio server, where it is broken down even further to identify which devices are using how much energy. Then the data comes back to you, where you can read it using your smart phone or computer.

Informed Decisions About Your Electrical Work

From there, you can use that data and make decisions about when to cut back on using certain devices or appliances, or to run them at different times of the day. The Neurio will let you know just how much you're spending on powering things like dryers, and also tell you how much power you're wasting due to phantom loads or always-on technology. If you keep an eye on the data, you'll get an early warning when an appliance is lagging in efficiency, and know where you can make the most impact when it comes time to replace some of your older equipment with modern, energy-efficient devices.

Installing the Neurio is a somewhat complicated affair, involving connecting it to your main panel, so your best bet is to get an experienced electrician to handle the task. If you need help disaggregating your energy consumption, or any other modifications to your electrical work, contact a qualified residential electrician today.