We all want to conserve energy, right? I mean, seeing the electric bill shrink from month to month isn't bad news for anybody. But what lengths will you go to to save a few joules? For instance, your DVR is a huge power hog. But if you unplug it before a lengthy vacation—the same way you might unplug the TV or turn off the A/C—it's not going to be able to fulfill it's only purpose. Is it practical? Is it worth it?
Do you have any idea how big an energy hog your DVR can be? The Natural Resources Defense Council tallied up the energy used by several different pieces of household tech, and the DVR came out on top (well, bottom, we guess):
Lifehacker, covering the NRDC report, gave us some great advice today about turning off our DVR when it's not in use to save energy:
Since the boxes don't really ever go to sleep, they just keep burning up the meter until they're shut down. It's not about cheap set-top boxes, either, because the nicer the cable box or DVR, the higher the power consumption.
It's great advice, in theory. But in practice, we have to wonder how useful it really is.
Since the DVR was designed to work for us when we're not home, it's not something you want to unplug when you leave for work or on vacation (Standby mode does just as much vampire damage as when it's powered on). And when you get home, you'll want to watch your saved shows, keeping the power sucking device on even longer.
I guess the usefulness of the "Turn off your DVR" advice depends on your lifestyle. If you use it infrequently enough to leave it powered off 5 nights a week, then it's a good idea. But for someone like me, who's constantly taping new series and double-booking her DVR, I'll just leave it on 'round the clock. It's the price you pay for watch-when-you-want convenience.
(Images: Flickr member stevegarfield licensed for use under Creative Commons, NRDC.org)
Things Fall Apart: Living Alone in a Space After a Breakup
TVG LA's Massive Creative Hub
Good Food to Share 
The Big Book of Small, Cool Spaces 
Apartment Therapy Presents 
The Eight-Step Home Cure 
Commercial Flour Sa...
10 Picnic-Ready Salads to Eat Outside
Recipe: Thai Ginger Chicken Stir-Fry
If you only record things in the evening (or really, between any limited number of hours in the day), you could possibly hook it up to one of those lamp timers and set it so that the "power" goes on and off at certain times of the day. i.e., I really only record things during primetime, so only having the power run from, say 7pm to midnight or 1 am (to allow for both the power-on/boot time and watching later in the evening) might be a possible way to go.
I've gone back and forth with this a lot. The conclusion I've come to are that since I only leave three things plugged in all the time (DVR, alarm clock, and refrigerator) I'm doing pretty good. Oh, I guess smoke detectors too, but those aren't going anywhere.
The real lesson here is that the cable companies are incompetent. An iPhone is capable of running its calendar and clock while on standby, consuming virtually no power (battery lasts for days if not weeks with the radios turned off). There's no reason why a DVR needs to be fully powered-up 24/7. A half-watt built-in alarm clock could wake it up as-needed.
We don't even have cable, so this isn't an issue for me. Between Hulu and Netflix I get my required fix. The only thing I really miss is Food Network and HGTV.
you can watch many of the shows on Food network and HGTV on their web sites.
We have a TiVo, and although it uses 50% of the power that our older DishNetwork DVR used, it's still a lot if we leave it on all the time. In any case, we use one of Belkin's surge protectors with a remote wireless switch that lets us do a simply 'click' to turn the DVR on/off. Works brilliantly.