Sky Boxes - do you think that they waste power?

[kai]

Sky Boxes - do you think that they waste power?

It seems a very bad design idea that Sky boxes need to be left on day and night to waste electricity. It makes better sense to make them safe to switch off without damage.
Downloading apps should not be a problem, it only takes two minutes to download an app into my mobile, the Sky box should be no different.
Or is it a conspiracy on the part of Sky to earn a cut of the electricity wastage costs???

 

[diyer56]

If they were to be turned off (and I mean completely turned off) how would they make the scheduled recordings? Is it any different to an old school VCR being left on/standby?

 

[ericmark]

The power used is not the Sky box it is the LNB this needs power to be able to read the program changes in any programs set to record. Clearly Sky could program the box to down load updates as a set time and to switch off the LNB if no programs are set to record.

The box also has an odd way of recording. Programs are recorded including any encryption and it does not charge for films until you watch them so should you fill the hard drive and not watch a down loaded film then your not charged.

I think Sky should alter the firmware to close down the LNB's when no programs are set to record so yes I do "believe in better" firmware could be written.

Question is have you tried it. I did early days test how much the sky box used. But I have not repeated the test, so maybe they have wrote better firmware now. Because not all TV's in house have digi eyes I don't use the auto stand-by mode.

 

[EFLImpudence]

It depends what you mean by waste power.

Does your car waste a lot more power?
Are Rolls Royce a conspiracy to earn a cut of the oil companies' wastage costs?

If you want Sky then that is the amount of power you have to pay for.
Perhaps they could be designed to use less power (like the car) but at the moment they aren't.

 

[ericmark]

It depends what you mean by waste power.

Does your car waste a lot more power?
Are Rolls Royce a conspiracy to earn a cut of the oil companies' wastage costs?

If you want Sky then that is the amount of power you have to pay for.
Perhaps they could be designed to use less power (like the car) but at the moment they aren't.

May I take it you have tested the Sky box in resent times? My notes say it was in stand-by 9 to 11 watts it kept swapping between 9 and 11 watts, in run it used 18 watts be it view or record and showed a maximum of 37 watts. It used 0.323 kWh in 24 hours I did not note how long in stand-by and how long watched.

This was some 5 years ago when we first got Sky+ HD "Polarisation switching is controlled by DC voltage supplied by the receiver. 12.5v to 14.5v gives vertical and 15.5 to 18v gives horizontal polarisation."This maybe explains swapping from 9 to 11 watt? Reading details on power supplies for LNB's it says 300 ~ 500 mA so between 4.6 and 9 watt for the LNB. As to if with duel LNB's both are powered in stand-by I don't know.

 

[EFLImpudence]

No. I haven't tested it.

 

[ericmark]

I am recording at moment Sky to PC so can't plug in Energy meter when I get a chance I will try since have had new LNB fitted so may be all changed now.

 

[ericmark]

If they were to be turned off (and I mean completely turned off) how would they make the scheduled recordings? Is it any different to an old school VCR being left on/standby?

My free to air box can make scheduled recordings and in stand-by my energy meter can't register the power used it is so low. However what the free to air box can't do is auto change the recording time when the broadcaster alters it for example to give new flashes. The Sky box does. Hunted for what power an LNB uses and could not find it.

Again until I have re-measured don't know. Sky say we are to believe in better so may be it has improved and now it only switches on the LNB so many times an hour or only when you have selected programs to record. Since we use series link there is never a time when there is nothing set to record. What we need is a number of people who have tested their box to see if it is just some boxes using over the one watt on stand-by or all boxes.

 

[Taylortwocities]

I am recording at moment

adding to your Rachel Riley collection?

 

[Spark123]

Mine keeps switching to eco mode in the early hours of the morning, shame as when I get up and switch the news on it takes a few minutes to come to life.

 

[AndyPRK]

I was annoyed that my VM TiVo let the HDD run 24hrs a day. This is the biggest part of the consumption.

Where as my freeview recorder would shut the HDD down when in standby.

 

[winston1]

Sky boxes have always been power hungry in standby, even ones that don't record. They don't actually go into standby, all they do is turn the video, audio, and RF output off. The reason is sky like to be in control so they can turn cards off, upgrade, downgrade etc 24/7.

Eric dual LNBs and quads take no more power than singles as they are really single LNBs with several outputs.

 

[Iggifer]

And therein lies the problem. We don't want things to waste power, but we also want things to be ready as soon as we want them to be.

My parents turn their sky boxes off at the wall when not in use, and as far as I'm aware there's no real issue to them, other than them taking longer to turn on when they get turned back on.

There's quite a lot going on in a modern sky box, no wonder they take so long to boot up

 

[big-all]

the average consumption off a box seems to be about 19w
if we assume the average watched is say 8hrs that leaves 16 hrs to turn it off or 16x19w =304w or about 3-4p a day is it worth worrying about ??
if that amount bothers you why not go for a freeview recorder costs about £100 no subscription

 

[Echo the husky]

I was going to say, if you can afford a Sky subscription, you can afford the electric to run the box...