The executive is presenting its major sobriety plan this Thursday with a digital component to always save a little more energy.
Putting internet boxes on hold is obviously one of the challenges for the government, which is presenting its major sobriety plan this Thursday. Thus, in the executive’s press kit, the question of boxes and decoders is part of the new measures.
“The players in the sector will define the criteria for setting up internet boxes and TV decoders for standby when not in use” explains the text.
This is generally the case for TV decoders, which go into standby automatically, but not necessarily for internet boxes. For example, it may be appropriate to turn off the Wi-Fi at night.
Contacted by Tech&Co, the office of the Minister Delegate for Digital confirms that the idea is to ensure that the internet boxes of all operators can be put on standby. For example, by allowing users to schedule a shutdown of the box and Wi-Fi over a specific time slot.
Another possibility is to plan a time slot during which the box turns off if it does not detect any device connected to Wi-Fi.
On the TV decoder side, the idea is to make it turn off at the same time as the television (on the Apple TV model) and not after a certain period of inactivity as is usually the case.
Main criterion so that it can be used quickly: that it does not depend on the hardware but rather on a simple software update.
A modest economy?
The question of the internet box is not new. In July, government spokesman Olivier Véran proposed as a daily gesture to “unplug the Wi-Fi” before leaving for the weekend or on vacation.
According to Ademe, an internet box consumes an average of 97 kWh/year, or 2% of the total electricity consumption of a French household (as much as a washing machine). That’s almost twice as much as a TV.
Disconnecting the Wi-Fi every weekend and for five weeks of vacation would thus save an average of 37 kWh/year, or 0.8% of its annual electricity consumption.
On the other hand, it is more interesting overall: in a recent noteArcep estimated that, “used for a few hours a day on average, permanently lit internet boxes have a consumption in Europe equivalent to the production of two to three nuclear reactors.”