Green software tackles rising standby power consumption

The software monitors device usage and, according to Ocean Blue, helps tackle the problem of standby power consumption, which currently costs UK householders over £500million a year and produces about 1million tones of CO2. The software module, Sunrise, monitors device usage and reduces consumption by switching off functions that are not required. Freeview set top boxes, for example, consume almost 12W, on average, when in standby mode. Ocean Blue says that by quickly pushing the box into deep hibernation, it can slash consumption by an estimated 70%. Ken Helps, ceo of Ocean Blue, said: "The proliferation of electronic devices in the home is pushing up power consumption, but few householders realise quite how much, this new technology should help save energy, money and help reduce our carbon footprint." Ocean Blue is working with several electronics manufacturers to implement Sunrise Eco-TV into future generations of chipsets and CE products.