EPA Starts Work on Energy Spec for DTV Converter Boxes
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is starting work on a voluntary Energy Star specification for digital TV converter boxes with a meeting in June or July of those interested. In a “Dear Stakeholder” letter to business, state govts., nonprofits and European and Canadian counterparts, Katherine Osdoba, Energy Star product mgr.- consumer electronics, said the first meeting will be “key” because the agency will begin developing a draft specification. She said the EPA is tracking work on energy limits for DTV adapters (DTAs) in states such as Cal. and N.Y. and in Canada, Australia and China. The agency’s work on converters will “involve some forecasting,” she said, because unlike other Energy Star products, DTV adapters aren’t yet on the market.
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EPA has a “rough” schedule for completion of the specification, Osdoba told us. Because the agency usually gives business 9-12 months after completion of specifications to qualify products for the Energy Star label, she said, “we need a specification finalized by the end of this year.” That will help manufacturers comply before the Feb. 17, 2009 analog TV cutoff. “Manufacturers are going to want to sell products before the cutoff date,” she said.
The industry was caught off-guard by the announcement. “This is news to us,” said Douglas Johnson, CEA senior dir.- technology policy. The industry wasn’t consulted before Osdoba’s letter went out Wed., he said. But, he said, “the important thing is that we work closely with the EPA as we move forward.” Johnson called the EPA specification-setting for DTV converter boxes an “extraordinary” effort: “I am not aware of any Energy Star program that was created in advance of a product or a technology’s debut in the market place.”
The EPA cited CEA estimates that about 33.6 million TV sets that rely on over-the-air programming will require converter boxes after the analog shutdown. “Anticipating large scale manufacture and sale of DTAs presents a unique opportunity to take steps to ensure these new devices are as energy efficient and cost effective in operation as possible,” Osdoba wrote. But the CEA has said it expects the number of people relying on converter boxes to fall because: (1) Cable and satellite penetration continuing to grow 1-2% annually. (2) FCC has required that all TVs with broadcast tuners add ATSC tuning by March 2007. (3) DTVs will outsell analog sets by 89% in 2006. In 2007, the CEA forecast, more than 96% of the 25 million TVs sold will be DTV sets. What the EPA currently has is “our best estimate,” said Osdoba when asked about CEA forecasts of falling demand for DTV converter boxes. But she conceded that the numbers “could be lower based on other factors like people subscribing to more cable or replacing their systems.”
CEA Economist Shawn DuBravac said DTAs aren’t going to be a “huge mass market.” He said with “robust changes” expected in the TV market over the next 3 years, the number of TV sets relying on over-the-air signals “could be as small as 17 million” by 2009.” It’s a product “purely intended to transition this market until consumers are naturally moved toward digital sets,” he told us. “Jeopardizing” or delaying the transition by focusing on energy use of converter boxes would result in more energy use, DuBravac said, because “potential energy saved by the analog shut off is huge.”
Asked about the EPA’s intention to look at standard- setting efforts in Cal. and N.Y. and in China, Australia and Europe, Johnson said it was “much less important than focusing on what’s going on in EPA’s own backyard.” He said the EPA has just completed work on new specifications for standby energy consumption for set-top boxes. The industry is working on “proper standby power numbers” for converter boxes for inclusion in the EPA standard, he added. “We would hope going forward that EPA is involved directly in this effort.” Digital TV adapters are “particular” to the U.S. market and the standards that the country has chosen for DTV broadcasting, Johnson said.