Ocean Blue develops green software to tackle standby power consumption

The technology, which could also be used in PCs and laptops, Infosecurity notes, has been developed by the company to tackle the ecological issue of standby device power consumption.

According to Ocean Blue, which has offices in Bristol, Hong Kong and Korea, the problem of standby power consumption costs UK homeowners more than £500 million a year and generates an astonishing 3.1 million tones of CO1.

When the software is installed on a Sunrise-compliant settop box, the firm says the Eco-TV firmware monitors device usage and reduces consumption by switching off functions that are not required.

Freeview settop boxes, for example, says Ocean Blue, consume almost 12 watts, on average, when in standby mode. Sunrise Eco-TV would quickly push the box into deep hibernation, slashing consumption by an estimated 70%.

Ken Helps, Ocean Blue's CEO, said that the proliferation of electronic devices in the home is pushing up power consumption, but few householders realise quite how much, this new technology should help save energy, money and help reduce the UK's carbon footprint.

Ocean Blue says that the number of TVs in the UK is estimated to hit 74 million by 2020 - up from just 18 million in 1970 - meaning that there will be more televisions than people to watch them.

In fact, says the firm, a recent study by Which? magazine found that the worst devices, Freeview boxes and DVD recorders, in some cases consumed over 20 watts in standby, and that a typical combination of entertainment devices left on standby could cost households almost £40 a year each in wasted electricity.

Ocean Blue adds that it is working with several electronics manufacturers to implement Sunrise Eco-TV into future generations of chipsets for settop boxes.

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