# Reducing power consumption



## CAT_9 (Feb 13, 2021)

I have a Tivo Edge, a Tivo Premiere and two minis. If the power consumption estimates I've seen on this forum are to be believed those devices consume almost 100 watts. Throw in my TVs on standby power and one A/V amp on standby power 24/7 and we are talking about _real energy consumption_.

So my initial solution was to use a mechanical timer to shut off power for seven hours at night when we don't use TV. But my Ethernet TiVo network doesn't seem to like that, as I have to manually update the program guide on the Tivos and re-run network troubleshooting for the minis to join the network again.

Is there a Tivo setting that I could automate the refresh routine at startup. Any other suggestions?


----------



## dianebrat (Jul 6, 2002)

If you're talking combined, that might be an accurate number, but there's only one way to be 100% sure and that's to get a measuring device ala a killawatt and measure for yourself. There's a tradeoff between convenience and power and as you've found convenience is what manufacturers go for.


----------



## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

CAT_9 said:


> Throw in my TVs on standby power and one A/V amp on standby power 24/7 and we are talking about _real energy consumption_.


That part is easy, I have my TVs and receivers on a power strip (actually one of those that goes under a computer monitor, separate button for each outlet) and just turn off when not in use. The Tivos, put in standby when not watching. Can't turn off or will miss recordings. But while in standby from what I understand they do not write the buffers to the drive (like half hour for each tuner?) I measured power savings doing that in the past, was not a LOT, but a side benefit could be increasing drive life, less constant writing to the drives, probably quite a bit. Might extend the life of your 2.5" Edge drive, a bit for the Premiere too. I suppose you could power off the Minis since no drive too.


----------



## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

I am using 5 Tivos right now, same TV. One Edge, three Roamio, one Premiere. Two are using an external dock/drive so that is a couple extra power supplies. They are all on one of those individual outlet strips/surge suppressors. I just plugged the strip with all Tivos on including the external drives into a kill-a-watt. With all totally on, none in standby. Looks at this time to be drawing about 100 watts for all 5 with the two externals (nothing recording at this time other than the buffers.) But need to check over a few days to get a significant reading.

Hey, anyone know what could happen if you plug a surge suppressor into another surge suppressor? Can it cause issues?


----------



## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

Ok, first "interval", 6 hours. The 5 Tivos and the two external drives, .57 kWh. Which would be 2.28 kWh a day. I think I'm just going to leave them plugged into the kill-a-watt for a good amount of time. My cost per kWh is .11861 including distribution charge. So costs me 27 cents a day to run my 5 Tivos? $8.10 for a 30 day month. $98.55 a year. Not too bad, interesting to figure out.


----------



## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

May test the TV, receiver and sub also. But since I completely power them down when not in use will be short time span tests. Unless I just leave everything on for say 24 hours for a test


----------



## CAT_9 (Feb 13, 2021)

@tommage1. Interesting. However, my main objective in powering down Tivo, was to be able to power down my whole network at night except for my router and switch and NAS, which are all truely low power and barely consume energy.

Even your $98.55 in yearly savings for your current equipment is nearly a yearly Netflix subscription cost and more than a Hulu's annual subscription cost, so, again, we are talking about real money. Obviously, this exercise would not be worth it for 1 Tivo. But if you have four or more, and four TVs and two A/V amps, sub woofer and assorted switches and printers and wifi access points, standby is still sipping energy that could be saved if the equipment was totally shut down instead of put in standby. And there's less time for my equipment to phone home to the manufacturers to broadcast usage data. I really only need one standby Tivo to do recording. Most of the other equipment can be shut down. I just need to find a way to gracefully script equipment shutdowns to avoid any power restore issues.


----------



## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

CAT_9 said:


> @tommage1. Interesting. However, my main objective in powering down Tivo, was to be able to power down my whole network at night except for my router and switch and NAS, which are all truely low power and barely consume energy.
> 
> Even your $98.55 in yearly savings for your current equipment is nearly a yearly Netflix subscription cost and more than a Hulu's annual subscription cost, so, again, we are talking about real money. Obviously, this exercise would not be worth it for 1 Tivo. But if you have four or more, and four TVs and two A/V amps, sub woofer and assorted switches and printers and wifi access points, standby is still sipping energy that could be saved if the equipment was totally shut down instead of put in standby. And there's less time for my equipment to phone home to the manufacturers to broadcast usage data. I really only need one standby Tivo to do recording. Most of the other equipment can be shut down. I just need to find a way to gracefully script equipment shutdowns to avoid any power restore issues.


True enough. I may test my receivers/TVs (and maybe powered subs), leave them in standby for at least 6 hours and measure draw. And a Mini or 2, since no drive I'd assume they don't draw much. I actually ordered a couple more killawatt devices, very handy. Bought a new fridge last year, was plugged into my killawatt for like 9 months. Drew even less than specs, I was surprised how little power it used, a bit over $30 a year.


----------



## cwerdna (Feb 22, 2001)

CAT_9 said:


> I have a Tivo Edge, a Tivo Premiere and two minis. If the power consumption estimates I've seen on this forum are to be believed those devices consume almost 100 watts a day.


Don't know what "100 watts a day" means. They'll use 100 watts if they're on for only 1 second, 24 hours, 1 month, etc.

You can measure power/energy consumption via one of the Kill-A-Watt devices at Electricity Monitors & Energy Savers | P3. I have Kill A Watt Meter - Electricity Usage Monitor | P3 which I got ages ago.

If you have something that uses 100 watts continually, if it's on for 1 hour, it used 100 watt-hours (100 watts * 1 hour --> 100 watt-hours or 0.1 kWh).

100 watts * 10 hours --> 1000 watt-hours --> 1 kWh
100 watts * 24 hours --> 2400 watt-hours --> 2.4 kWh

Multiply the units and values.

Your electric provider bills you per kWh. I power off my single TiVo mini when I leave the house. Nobody will be around to use it.

There is a possibility that your residential electricity plan may have demand charges, which are measured in kW. AFAIK, they're rare for residential plans in the US but exist. On those, you get billed for demand (in kW) + energy (in kWh).

Even the Kill A Watt that I have will count up hours and minutes along with the number of kWh consumed in that time period.


----------



## CAT_9 (Feb 13, 2021)

@ cwerdna. That was a typo. Thanks for catching it. My point still stands though: $100 annually, at the low end, to operate multiple Tivos is not the same as free. I'd rather shut it off, save the wear and tear and use that money for other things.


----------



## dianebrat (Jul 6, 2002)

CAT_9 said:


> @ cwerdna. That was a typo. Thanks for catching it. My point still stands though: $100 annually, at the low end, to operate multiple Tivos is not the same as free. I'd rather shut it off,* save the wear and tear *and use that money for other things.


There's a very important data point you're missing, power on and power off cycles for an HDD are the hardest part of their operation and they are not only more likely to fail when powering up, but that power cycles can decrease their life.


----------



## tommage1 (Nov 6, 2008)

dianebrat said:


> There's a very important data point you're missing, power on and power off cycles for an HDD are the hardest part of their operation and they are not only more likely to fail when powering up, but that power cycles can decrease their life.


That IS big. Using standby (if on TE4, some TE3 Tivos have problems with standby), could save a lot of wear and tear on the drives too. Due to not writing buffers. Maybe, maybe not, makes sense though, I use max "power saving" on my two TE4 devices and usually manually put them into standby when through watching. Not for the power saving, minimal, to maybe extend drive life. Unplugging/turning off Minis should be no problem though, no drives. Doubt a Mini draws much, even when in use.


----------



## cwerdna (Feb 22, 2001)

CAT_9 said:


> @tommage1. Interesting. However, my main objective in powering down Tivo, was to be able to power down my whole network at night except for my router and switch and NAS, *which are all truely low power and barely consume energy.*


You should really measure them individually along with your TiVo boxes and TiVo minis to be sure. You might be surprised.


----------



## charlesj (Dec 6, 2021)

I was doing the exact same thing with my Premier 4, on a timer for it and the wi-fi and modem. The latter off for 8 hours at night, nothing was happening then a separate timer for Premier to come on at 1/2 hour before recording evens and 15 min after all recording events was over each night.
Worked with Premier4 flawlessly for 10 years. It rebooted although at time it would do it 2 or 3 time in a row but never more than 3 and worked great. I could also manually turn it on or off of course to watch TV through it.
Then, for some odd reason, perhaps the sales pitch, I got the Edge. A rude awakening. Never reconnected to wi-fi, all manually. Got a 2nd unit. Same. So now I am forced to keep wi-fi network on 24/7.
It works now, mostly. Energy lost during those 8 hours off time for wi-fi network is 60Whx8x365= 175kWh. 
Edge in sleep mode was not measured by me but is not much I would venture to say.


----------



## charlesj (Dec 6, 2021)

tommage1 said:


> .... Bought a new fridge last year, was plugged into my killawatt for like 9 months. Drew even less than specs, I was surprised how little power it used, a bit over $30 a year.


I did that with a self-defrost GE freezer for 30 days after initial install and cooldown cycle. Way less than older unit that I had to defrost manually about every 9 months or so. Yep, that meter is great.


----------

