Reducing Energy - Home Theatre

dynamictiger · Jan 02, 2008 9:03 am

Hi All

I have been mucking about with home theatre for a while now.

After making the decision to move ahead on Solar Panels I have had to review my energy use and one of the areas I have really impacted has been my home theatre.

I thought I would take a few moments to share how I have approached this. I don't know if this is the best approach however it is working for me.

In my Home Theatre I can:
- Record HDTV on upto 4 channels
- Watch HD DVD
- Have Surround Sound

As well as all the usual things you might want to do, whilst minimising my energy use.

In many Home Theatres people have a digital set top box, a DVD player with or without HD, a surround sound system and a display of some sort.

I have a media centre computer, a set of speakers and a display.

This is not the whole secret so don't get put off by media centre computer just yet.

initially I bought the media centre as I liked the idea of one box to do everything. What i did not realise is I was going to save energy using it.

In addition I have a work horse computer. It is actually more like a mac truck the way it is configured it is very high end work station. When I had this built last year I got a twin digital tuner fitted and run Vista ultimate. Once complete I had a network cable run through the wall from the theatre to the living area where i use my work horse mainly.

I have fitted a double adaptor to my antenna point.

I have one antenna lead going from the wall to the Media Centre computer - this enables the media center to still record free to air TV, and a second lead going straight to the back of the display (which is fairly new so has a tuner on board).

The only additional lead i have is a network cable from the back of the media centre to the wall socket - installed for purpose.

On the family room side I run a network cable from the socket to a gigabit ethernet network switch.

How this all comes together:

During the week I record on my work horse computer (which only runs in off peak power times) whatever programs I want to record. Simultaneously we watch Tv using the Displays in built tuner. The media centre computer is off completely most of the time.

On Friday nights we watch a DVD usually - so I will turn on the media centre computer on a Friday night. Once switched on I tell my workhorse to transfer the recorded TV across from it's drive to the media center computer drive and thus have recorded TV available to watch during the weekend.

As I don't watch sport this weekend television is usually enough for me. However the same princples could be used with some thought on other set ups.

The other advantage of this approach is the computers typically use around 250 watts of electricity. A DVD Player, amplifier and Set Top Box would reasonably consume more than that power combined.

If you would like to know more information on this or whatever please reply and I'll try and assist or direct you to a site or something that can.

DeKa · Jan 02, 2008 12:34 pm

dynamictiger

The other advantage of this approach is the computers typically use around 250 watts of electricity. A DVD Player, amplifier and Set Top Box would reasonably consume more than that power combined.

I think you've got this quite wrong and you might need to reconsider. My DVD player uses 8W when on, and 1W in standby. My STB/PVR uses 18W max when on and about 5w in standby I'd guess. My TV uses 135W when on. All up, that's 161W when all on.
I use a PowerGenieto turn everything but the STB/PVR off when not in use so my standby power is only 1W.

I don't mean to be critical, I doubt you're saving energy using a Media Centre PC.

Cabinfever · Jan 02, 2008 2:34 pm

I don't mean to be critical, just inject a somewhat expanded view...

The above setup involves a lot of gear: computers, displays, cabling etc etc using a vast range of metals, chemicals and plastics. Consider not only the cost, pollution and energy required to produce all this material, but also what happens to it as landfill a few years down the track.

It seems to me that foregoing one of these items would probably be massively more "environmental" than a year of two of piffling domestic energy savings.

This is not to criticise your good efforts, but seen in the wider picture I think calculating these sort of "savings" is really only of signifcance in terms of your power bill. There's no environmental positive here.

commodorenut · Jan 02, 2008 3:54 pm

You make a very valid point cabinfever.

A similar scenario was put to me, comparing a HQ Holden to a VE Commodore.

The VE may use half (or less) fuel that the HQ to do the same amount of 'work' thus making the HQ more than double the 'pollutor' that the VE is.

However, with the amount of synthetic material in a VE (bumpers, lights, trim, dash, underbonnet bits etc) there's a hell of a lot more pollution 'creating' the VE than the HQ.

The question posed is "how long until the lower 'usage pollution' of the VE balances out the additional 'creation pollution' and will it ever happen in the car's lifetime?"

I think it's good food for thought, and I understand exactly what you mean about the true environmental cost of all this 'green technology'

Cabinfever · Jan 04, 2008 12:05 am

It would certainly be interesting to see some figures based on the total amount of energy & pollution in these situations, rather than basing everything on 'running costs'.

The only precedent I can think of is the old World War II situation where "make do and mend" was the imperative. At that time it was very clear that repair and maintenance was far more efficient in terms of resources and labour than building new, more economical items.

Of course these days you'll never see a company or a government ever say to people: "If you really want to help the environment just don't buy so much stuff". That'd be an economic disaster.

Instead we have the more finely nuanced position where we're all encouraged to buy loads of new and replacement stuff which happens to have a little less of unpopular substance X or emits a tad less of unpopular gas Y.

But keep buying !

stonecutter1309 · Jan 04, 2008 5:49 am

Cabinfever

Of course these days you'll never see a company or a government ever say to people: "If you really want to help the environment just don't buy so much stuff". That'd be an economic disaster.

I think that is what the RBA is trying to do when they raise interest rates - shame it doesn't work as we've become such a consumption = quality of life society!

Cabinfever · Jan 04, 2008 12:16 pm

stonecutter1309

I think that is what the RBA is trying to do when they raise interest rates - shame it doesn't work as we've become such a consumption = quality of life society!

Good point. Just a pity that rising interest rates typically hit the people who are already on the tightest budgets. Rising rates actually make the wealthiest people better off.

Yak_Chat · Jan 05, 2008 6:37 pm

Cb and CDN - all good points and unless you know ALL the costs and outputs to buld the new item - it's a tough one to objectivlty anwer - other than I'm with you - use it till it's uneconomical to continue using - or the GH outputs are offset - long term.

But the main point here is dynamictiger is installing Solar Panels - so needs to cut the load and also accuratly work out his actual current draw.

An easy way to do it to buy one of these.

And if you join the Alternative Technology Association and you can rent one for a week.

http://shop.ata.org.au/cart.php?target=product&product_id=16354&category_id=322

Another way is to use a digital mulit-metre - but unless you know what you are doing - don't do it that way.

Steve