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Bourne, Mass. — Oct. 28, 2014 – Onset, a world leader in data loggers, has announced that the engineering and energy-efficiency consulting firm Alternative Energy Systems Consulting (AESC) will use 25 Onset HOBO Plug Load loggers to identify the energy savings potential of cable set-top box (STB) optimization.
The monitoring project will investigate the energy consumption of cable television STBs in active and passive states at 25 California residences. To identify the energy savings potential of STB optimization, AESC will monitor both power and IR remote-control activity. Using these two data streams, AESC will isolate times of active and inactive use and their respective energy consumption. The power and energy consumption of STBs during times when the residents are not watching TV could prove to be a significant energy savings opportunity.
“The plug load data loggers will enable us to study set-top box use and their loads in order to better understand how we can save energy from an application that is present in over 80 percent of United States homes,” said M M Valmiki, an engineer with AESC. “And, the results from the study will inform progress towards California’s energy efficiency goals.”
Onset’s HOBO Plug Load data logger is a high-accuracy, easy-to-deploy instrument that measures and records the power and energy consumption of 120V plug loads. It provides 0.5 percent measurement accuracy with a measurement resolution of 1 watt, making it an ideal choice for energy studies where detailed energy use data is required. AESC will deploy the loggers in-line with STB power supplies in living rooms, dens, and bedrooms, where they will record power measurements once per minute. More than 1,500,000 measurements will be taken over the monitoring period.
Onset, based on Cape Cod, Mass., is a leading supplier of data loggers. The company’s HOBO data logger and weather station products are used around the world in a broad range of applications, including building energy performance monitoring, water resources management, and ecological and agricultural research.
