banner My name is Justin Luyt. I started this blog in the midst of out 2008/9 recession with the purpose of helping others reduce their monthly expenses. All around our homes we have a multitude of devices, tapping into your bank account every day.

We will be reviewing products and services that will help you not only conserve our planet, but conserve your hard earned dollars also.
Jul
5th

Electricity Saving with your Dish Network DVR

Author: admin | Files under Electricity Saving
We all love our home entertainment systems since they supply us hours of joy watching blockbusters from Hollywood right in our own TV room at home. But when it comes to electricity saving, we do not frequently think how much electricity those devices consume. Today, I took my Kill-A-Watt electricity meter and measured how much my personal entertainment system consumes. To my amazement, as a whole the Sony WEGA FD Trinitron TV, Dish Network DVR, KLH Receiver and Nintendo Wii was consuming over 150 Watt of energy.
In this review we will focus on the Dish Network DVR. The Dish Network DVR did pretty well, but we can definitely apply some electricity saving techniques in the way we use it. Most people do not unplug their DVR when they are not using it and the load that the Dish Network DVR draws when it is in standby is 33 Watts as appose to 35 Watts when it is fully on. Thus there is only a 2 Watt difference only between it being in standby as appose to it being on. When you are recording it goes up to 36 Watt, but that is the highest I have measured it. This means that when you think you switch the DVR to standby, you are not really switching it off and not saving much money in the act. So, what does this mean to your pocket?
My calculations to follow are based on my new Electricity Rate from StarTex Power, 9.99 cents per kWh. Now most of us control our TV experience via the Home Theater Receiver and this means that the Dish Network DVR stays on for the most part – 24×7 360-days of the year. Thus if you run your DVR day and night all year long, it will draw 302 kWh per year which will run you $29.48 per year. This is not too bad, but remember our goal is marginal reduction of usage off all of our appliances in order to generate all over cost savings for you.
In our home the TV is truly only in use for about 4-hours per day. In the event that we unplug the DVR for the time that it is not used, we will be generating a cost saving of $24.95 per year and the Dish Network DVR will only end up using about $4.99 of electricity per year, consuming only a total of 50 kWh for the year. This is a cost & electricity saving of 83%.
Most of you will say that it is a hassle unplugging your DVR when you are not using it, but I have good news for you. The use of a Smart Strip can disconnect all your entertainment devices when one control device is switched off (like your TV). We will review Smart Strips on a later stage, but just remember that there is simple affordable electricity saving devices available to prevent you from bending over the TV every night to unplug it.
Let us get back to the numbers. As you will see in all my reviews I will make reference to how much money you will be saving over a long term. $24.95 per year might not sound like too much for you, but if you put that $24.95 in a conservative savings account and earn 1.75% interest on it and you do it consistently for 18 years you would have a nice bundle stacked away. How much? After 18-years you will have $522 in your chilCollege Fund, simply from these savings.

We all love our home entertainment systems since they supply us hours of joy watching blockbusters from Hollywood right in our own TV room at home. But when it comes to electricity saving, we do not frequently think how much electricity those devices consume. Today, I took my Kill-A-Watt Electricity Meter and measured how much my personal entertainment system consumes. To my amazement, as a whole the Sony WEGA FD Trinitron TV, Dish Network DVR, KLH Receiver and Nintendo Wii together was consuming over 150 Watt of energy.

In this review we will focus on the Dish Network DVR. The Dish Network DVR did pretty well, but we can definitely apply some electricity saving techniques in the way we use it. Most people do not unplug their DVR when they are not using it and the load that the Dish Network DVR draws when it is in standby is 33 Watts as appose to 35 Watts when it is fully on. Thus there is only a 2 Watt difference only between it being in standby as appose to it being on. When you are recording it goes up to 36 Watt, but that is the highest I have measured it. This means that when you think you switch the DVR to standby, you are not really switching it off and not saving much money in the act. So, what does this mean to your pocket?

My calculations to follow are based on my new Electricity Rate from StarTex Power, 9.99 cents per kWh. Now most of us control our TV experience via the Home Theater Receiver and this means that the Dish Network DVR stays on for the most part – 24×7 360-days of the year. Thus if you run your DVR day and night all year long, it will draw 302 kWh per year which will run you $29.48 per year. This is not too bad, but remember our goal is marginal reduction of usage off all of our appliances in order to generate all over cost savings for you.

In our home the TV is truly only in use for about 4-hours per day. In the event that we unplug the DVR for the time that it is not used, we will be generating a cost saving of $24.95 per year and the Dish Network DVR will only end up using about $4.99 of electricity per year, consuming only a total of 50 kWh for the year. This is a cost & electricity saving of 83%.

Most of you will say that it is a hassle unplugging your DVR when you are not using it, but I have good news for you. The use of a Smart Strip can disconnect all your entertainment devices when one control device is switched off (like your TV). We will review Smart Strips on a later stage, but just remember that there is simple affordable electricity saving devices available to prevent you from bending over the TV every night to unplug it.

Let us get back to the numbers. As you will see in all my reviews I will make reference to how much money you will be saving over a long term. $24.95 per year might not sound like too much for you, but if you put that $24.95 in a conservative savings account and earn 1.75% interest on it and you do it consistently for 18 years you would have a nice bundle stacked away. How much? After 18-years you will have $522 in your children’s College Fund, simply from these savings.

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