# How much power does a Premiere draw?



## cruiserandmax (Apr 7, 2008)

I'm still on the fence towards upgrading from my existing Comcast DVR to a premiere. One factor for me might also be energy use. Does anyone happen to know, or even better have measured for yourself how much power the Premiere draws? I assume it's always on, but if there is any type of standby mode (I don't recal there was with my S2), it would be good to get a draw value for that too. Thanks!!


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## Ky_Shag (Jan 26, 2012)

Owner manual says
POWER
120VAC, 60Hz, 1.0A


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## windracer (Jan 3, 2003)

See #10 here.



> The TiVo Premiere consumes 23 watts in standby and 26 watts while recording under the 14.1c software. This represents a substantial reduction from the TiVo HD, Series3, and many older cable DVRs, and it was sufficient to meet the ENERGY STAR tier1 specifications that took effect on January 1, 2009.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

Both my Elites draw between 20 watts min. and 23 watts max. in use. Typical power draw is around 21 watts. I never use standby. Even my two tuner Premieres don't draw 26 watts. They draw around 23 or 24 watts. Typically around 23.5 watts. 

I'm using Belkin Conserve Insight Energy-Use Monitors with both my Elites and one of my two tuner Premieres.


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## cruiserandmax (Apr 7, 2008)

aaronwt said:


> Both my Elites draw between 20 watts min. and 23 watts max. in use. Typical power draw is around 21 watts. I never use standby. Even my two tuner Premieres don't draw 26 watts. They draw around 23 or 24 watts. Typically around 23.5 watts.
> 
> I'm using Belkin Conserve Insight Energy-Use Monitors with both my Elites and one of my two tuner Premieres.


Thanks, true watts drawn was just what I was looking for. Those are very decent numbers as well. Much better than the numbers from the manual. Maybe the manual is refering to the rating of the power supply.


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## steve614 (May 1, 2006)

No, I think it's a CYA fudge with the numbers.
TiVo might spec a slightly higher (yet not unreasonable) number just so that no one can come back and dispute it with hard evidence.


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## Teeps (Aug 16, 2001)

cruiserandmax said:


> I'm still on the fence towards upgrading from my existing Comcast DVR to a premiere. One factor for me might also be energy use.


Why?


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## Jeff_DML (Mar 3, 2009)

Teeps said:


> Why?


they are all using the basic same BRCM chipset, boards designs are obviously different but I would expect power consumption will be very similiar.


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## cruiserandmax (Apr 7, 2008)

Teeps said:


> Why?


Because I care about power consumption in regard to cost and heat.


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## slowbiscuit (Sep 19, 2006)

cruiserandmax said:


> I'm still on the fence towards upgrading from my existing Comcast DVR to a premiere.


LOL, seriously? A lifetime Tivo quickly pays for itself, and is 100% better than that crap. You just missed one of the best deals so far, a Premiere refurb at woot for $50 shipped. Toss in lifetime at $400 using discount code PLSR and you'd have a box that would probably pay for itself in a couple of years and have good resale value to boot.


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## cruiserandmax (Apr 7, 2008)

slowbiscuit said:


> LOL, seriously? A lifetime Tivo quickly pays for itself, and is 100% better than that crap. You just missed one of the best deals so far, a Premiere refurb at woot for $50 shipped. Toss in lifetime at $400 using discount code PLSR and you'd have a box that would probably pay for itself in a couple of years and have good resale value to boot.


The cost of the lifetime sub is what is mainly stopping me now- the real deal that I missed was when Tivo offered Premiere Lifetime Subscription for $199 for existing Series 2 Lifetime subscribers. I balked at that point mainly due to the reported speed/stability issues of Premiere at release. At this point that deal is obviously never coming back, but I can't stomach the higher price. If I had only bought in then!

Even with the $50 + $400 deal you mentioned, I would really only save about $7/month, which would take over 5 years to recoup. That maybe a good deal in the long run, but it's a lot up front.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

cruiserandmax said:


> The cost of the lifetime sub is what is mainly stopping me now- the real deal that I missed was when Tivo offered Premiere Lifetime Subscription for $199 for existing Series 2 Lifetime subscribers. I balked at that point mainly due to the reported speed/stability issues of Premiere at release. At this point that deal is obviously never coming back, but I can't stomach the higher price. If I had only bought in then!
> 
> Even with the $50 + $400 deal you mentioned, I would really only save about $7/month, which would take over 5 years to recoup. That maybe a good deal in the long run, but it's a lot up front.


Plus the lifetime box has a high resale value. You need to factor that into the savings. You sell the box after a few years when a new model comes out and it covers 80% to 100% or more of the cost of a new lifetime TiVo.

It's worked greta for me when I went from my S3 boxes to Premieres. That sale covered 80% of the cost of my lifetime Premieres. Then when I switched to Elite boxes. The sale of two Premieres covered 100% of the cost of a lifetime Elite.


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## Teeps (Aug 16, 2001)

cruiserandmax said:


> Because I care about power consumption in regard to cost and heat.


Heat I can understand.


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## steve614 (May 1, 2006)

cruiserandmax said:


> Because I care about power consumption in regard to cost and heat.





Teeps said:


> Heat I can understand.


Heat and power consumption go hand in hand. The device that draws less power should theoretically create less heat, therefore you should opt with the device that has a lower power consumption rating.


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## wmcbrine (Aug 2, 2003)

Teeps said:


> Heat I can understand.


So electricity is free to you?


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## Chris Gerhard (Apr 27, 2002)

wmcbrine said:


> So electricity is free to you?


IF someone is paying $500 for an item, a few cents more or less electricity per month doesn't seem worth much discussion to me.


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## slowbiscuit (Sep 19, 2006)

cruiserandmax said:


> Even with the $50 + $400 deal you mentioned, I would really only save about $7/month, which would take over 5 years to recoup. That maybe a good deal in the long run, but it's a lot up front.


Lifetime generally pays for itself if you ever want to sell the box, you can't ignore that.


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## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

Chris Gerhard said:


> IF someone is paying $500 for an item, a few cents more or less electricity per month doesn't seem worth much discussion to me.


Its far more than a few cents a month. A Comcrap DVR uses approx 100 watts which at a Houston average of 10.5 per kwh is $7.56 a month in power for the DVR. Then all that heat must be removed from the house using AC in the summer (Houston uses AC on average 8 months a year) At an average 12 SEER rating AC unit, figure an additional $4.00 a month for the electric to move that heat outside. $12 a month for a dvr engergy use is more than the monthly subscription cost so its VERY worthy of discussion.

The Premiere, at approx 25 watts uses appox 1/4 of that or a savings of $8 a month in electric use alone.

It all adds up.


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## aaronwt (Jan 31, 2002)

100 watts? What kind of DVR is Comcast using down there? The ones they use here don't draw anything close to that. But they do still use more power than the Premiere.


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## slowbiscuit (Sep 19, 2006)

There's no way in hell it uses 100 watts. 30-40, maybe.


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## Chris Gerhard (Apr 27, 2002)

jcthorne said:


> Its far more than a few cents a month. A Comcrap DVR uses approx 100 watts which at a Houston average of 10.5 per kwh is $7.56 a month in power for the DVR. Then all that heat must be removed from the house using AC in the summer (Houston uses AC on average 8 months a year) At an average 12 SEER rating AC unit, figure an additional $4.00 a month for the electric to move that heat outside. $12 a month for a dvr engergy use is more than the monthly subscription cost so its VERY worthy of discussion.
> 
> The Premiere, at approx 25 watts uses appox 1/4 of that or a savings of $8 a month in electric use alone.
> 
> It all adds up.


I used Comcast for years, a Motorola DCT6412III DVR, the worst in terms of energy usage I am aware of, around 40 watts and that was 6 years ago. Today, no DVR should be over 30 unless you have a second HD attached. Which DVR do you believe uses 5 times the electricity of a Premiere, I don't really expect you to have anything specific since I am certain that is a false statement. That is just one of those urban legends that don't stand up to scrutiny.


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## jcthorne (Jan 28, 2002)

It was a Scientific Atlanta and was using 90+ watts continuously. Don't remember the model number but was one of SAs first HD dvrs deployed by Time Warner and assumed by Comcrap during the takeover. It had a quite noisy fan that pushed a bunch of hot air into my equipment room.

Good to hear they are somewhat better now if not yet energy star rated. Still, its not pennies a month and is a worthy discussion. Tivo made great efforts to improve energy efficiency in the Premiere over the HD as part of its design.


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