Do you really need to unplug your internet box at night to save electricity ?

© Unsplash/Stephen Phillips

In these times of ecological awareness and soaring electricity prices, every gesture counts to reduce the environmental footprint and household energy bills. Among the advice often given, that of turning off your internet box at night raises questions and debates. So, is this a real solution? ;economy or just a symbolic gesture?

How much does an internet box consume?

A survey by Arcep, just published, has shed new light on the energy consumption of fiber optic and ADSL boxes which equip more than 24 million homes in France. According to this report, these devices consumed no less than 3.3 terawatt hours of electricity in 2022, which represents approximately 2.2% of the energy bill of French households. This figure is all the more striking as it is equivalent to three times the consumption necessary for operators to route Internet traffic to subscribers.< /p>

These data emerged in a context where France faces major energy challenges, exacerbated by the energy crisis of 2022. The government then encouraged the French to turn off their internet boxes at night, a measure aimed at reducing national electricity consumption.

Turn off your internet box yes, but not only

L’Arcep emphasizes that 95 % of consumption of&# 8217;a box is independent of actual usage, which means that even inactive, it continues to consume almost as much energy. In this context, turning off your box when it is not in use appears to be an effective measure to save electricity. This practice is all the more relevant as telecom operators have, in recent years, integrated the possibility of manually or automatically turning off boxes, making energy efficiency a selling point.

While she recognizes the efforts of operators to improve the energy efficiency of equipment, the president of Arcep, Laure de La Raudière, calls for a verification of these allegations. She insists on the need for a global approach to ecodesign in the digital sector, including device manufacturers, operators, platforms, and data centers, to truly reduce waste. ;#8217;environmental impact.

Concretely, turning off your internet box is good, but still not enough. In reality, the issue of energy consumption of digital equipment concerns the entire value chain of the sector. Arcep therefore plans to highlight environmental issues in its new strategic roadmap, emphasizing that digital technology, while being a vector of energy transition, must also minimize its ecological footprint.

• Internet boxes consume 3.3 terawatt hours of electricity per year in France, or 2.2% of household energy bills
• Turn off box when it is not in use allows for energy savings
• Beyond this gesture, the Arcep calls for a global approach to eco-design and energy sobriety for the entire digital sector

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