We do not pay attention to this seemingly inert box which emits no noise and which rarely appears. We have all integrated it into our interiors, it has been part of the furniture for years. And yet, it has nothing in common with a vase or a statuette.
The Internet Box consumes a lot more than it looks, largely due to WiFi. Throughout Europe, the Boxes mobilize the equivalent of 2 or 3 nuclear reactors according to ARCEP. And on a household scale, at home, the Box consumes more than some refrigerators: approximately 125 kWh per year for the most economical refrigerators, 158 kWh per year on average for the Internet box and TV decoder duo. , and up to 300 kWh per year for the most greedy, according to the Green IT collective. Last July, ADEME, the Ecological Transition Agency, indicated an average of 184 kWh per year for the Internet Box plus the TV decoder. The set therefore even consumes more than most washing machines and dishwashers.
Concretely, with a basic kWh at a little over 17 euro cents today at the “blue” rate at EDF, your Box lit non-stop will cost you, over one year, on average, 27.50 euros in electricity, and up to just over 52 euros if your Box is particularly voracious, according to consumption estimated by Green IT. An annual addition that can reach 62 euros with some competing operators, or more than 5 euros per month.
Hence the interest of only turning on your Box when you need it. Good practice is to turn it off when you go away for the weekend or longer. You will save up to 1.25 euros for example, if you take a week’s vacation, Box off. It doesn’t seem like much, but every euro counts and “every gesture counts”: this is the government’s slogan around this energy sobriety plan.
Above all, you will avoid unnecessary consumption. In that case, don’t we all have an interest in doing it? No, there is an exception: those who use home automation connected to WiFi, precisely to adjust their heating as best as possible, and thus save money. These users need a permanently accessible Box to control the temperature remotely.
The government has announced something new soon: the possibility of putting your Internet Box and TV decoder on standby, automatically or programmable. Flat screens already know how to do it when you fall asleep in front of it, for a simple reason: a device in standby consumes ten times less.
Free was the first to react on Thursday with its own energy sobriety plan, already widely announced in recent months. Its Freebox Connect application already makes it possible to plan the shutdown of WiFi during certain time slots. The operator announces that a new “Energy saving” menu will soon appear on some of its Freeboxes: in particular, it will allow the TV decoder to be put into deep standby – even the telephone is deactivated – with, as a result, a reduction in power consumption by 95%. Orange, which already allows this to be done on its Livebox 6, announces 85% savings in deep standby.