Sky Box consumption

dannymccann

Using my ecoeye energy monitor one day I decided to check out just how much it does use. Its the Sky + Box in white, cant see the manufacturer and cant get to the back to look.

I found that while the box is on it uses 25w an hour, whether recording or not. On standby (red light) it uses 20w an hour, a piddly 5w reduction. I figured that after 4 - 6 hours the box would turn the hard drives off, and the fans and everything else, thereby taking the consumption down to around 7w. This was not the case, using a consistent 20w an hour over a 10 hour overnight period.

Based on a BG standard tariff (23p / kwh | 10p /kwh)

365 days x 24 hours = 8760 hours / 20w per hour = 438kWh

Not going to the lengths to work out how much would be charged at tier 1 / tier 2:
100kwh x £0.23 = £23
338kwh x £0.10 = £33.80

All at Tier 2
438kwh x £0.10 = £43.80

If I have worked that out correctly, following Sky's advice to turn to standby on my particular box, and not turn it off, it would cost me a minimum £43.80 to leave a box on standby all year round :eek:

Now obviously not everyone will be on a standard tariff, but even on BG's WebSaver3 its 9.3p on Tier 2, which is a hefty £40.73, and this isnt even taking into account the hours on end the set top box will be on for.

Can someone tell me if ive worked that out correctly, it seems logical to me :j

Vestra

I worked it out to be 175kwh as 8760 hours at 0.02kwh. This would then be £17.50 at the second tier rate.

Premier_2

dannymccann wrote: »

...365 days x 24 hours = 8760 hours / 20w per hour = 438kWh...

That's wrong.

8760 hours per year is correct.
As the box uses 20W per hour (according to your measurement), it's 8760 x 20 = 175200wh per year (or 175.2kwh per year)

nomoneynoprobs

Crikey, going to unplug mine now, where did you get the ecoeye from?

LaurenM9

Will it still record though if it is left on standby? I've just ordered it for my new flat and want to keep energy costs to a minimum :money:

bill888

I'm no expert, but I vaguely recall when a relative had Sky+ installed a few years back, there was a menu option to disable the Rewind function (if that's what it is called). This supposedly causes the hard drives to spin down immediately when put into standby mode and to help improve reliability.

Someone else may be able to confirm this.

beecher

If you make sure Sky Anytime is disabled I'd have thought that would cut down on the electricity during the night too.

st999

Will it still record though if it is left on standby? I've just ordered it for my new flat and want to keep energy costs to a minimum

It will record if left on standby.

Do what I do to work out unit price

electricity used in year 4270Kwh
bill for electricity £497 including vat and discount

therefore unit cost 4270/497 = 12p
years cost of Sky+ at 20 watts = £21

If you pull the plug out for 12 hours a day you save £11 per year. I'd rather pay the £11 per year to save crawling on my hands and knees before I go to my bed and when I get up in the morning.

I was switching mine off at night and to be honest it was a lot of hassle, sometimes it would take 5 mins before I could watch a programme and sometimes I lost recordings.

The Sky+ box works better left plugged in all the time, plus it goes into standby by itself at 1am and still records at 7am if set for that.

As Martin says it is about saving money and enjoying yourself not saving money and being miserable

Stan

emmadragon

st999 wrote: »

If you pull the plug out for 12 hours a day you save £11 per year. I'd rather pay the £11 per year to save crawling on my hands and knees before I go to my bed and when I get up in the morning.

Not quite on the same thread but you might want to invest in the ByeBye Standby system, I switch off the TV, DVD, FreeSat, Xbox with just one button.

Emma

st999

And the bye bye standby system would probably cost more to buy than I would save in electricity, I'd rather pay £11 per year in electricity so that when I switch on my TV I can watch a programme immediately instead of waiting 5 mins for the Sky box to boot up and update.

I could also save money if I turned off my pilot light every day and only turned it on when I want hot water or heating but is it worth the hassle.

Same with my computer when I leave it for five minutes but again is it worth the hassle.

It is all about convenience not living miserably:cool:

Stan

adprob

you also have to remember if you turn your box off at night you will miss any software and coding updates sky send to the box which over time could cause you trouble