The type of devices and how they are used overall clearly influence
the outcomes. Both manufacturing and use of the devices
are important for the resulting potential greenhouse gas emissions.
It is interesting to note that the peripheral devices, the STB and
RGW, actually contributed 18% of the global warming potential in
the IPTV case. These peripheral devices are not turned off immediately
after watching the movie (the RGW are always on, and the
STB is on for 23% of a day and in standby mode for 31%). With new
and different solutions for transmitting data content, different peripheral
end-use equipment may become increasingly necessary
(Fraunhofer Institute for Reliability and Microintegration, 2007b).
Furthermore, a study on Swedish households and electronics found
that standby consumption is increasing and that its contribution to
household energy use is growing “in a worryingway” (Zimmerman,
2009). If the downlink capacity would not be sufficient for
streaming, the impacts from these devices would be even higher,
since they would need to be used for a longer time.
All of the home devices and components within the distribution
systems studied here are used for more purposes than watching a
movie. Therefore the total climate change impact of electricity use
in standby mode and in manufacturing of devices and components
must be divided (allocated) between these different uses. This
means that if they are much more actively used or used over a long