Lowest energy wireless internet router?

Ben84

I'm hopefully going to be changing my router soon, and as it will be turned on 24/7 I want one that uses the least energy possible. I've been looking at the Lynksys router that uses 2.6 watt, but most router companies don't say a lot about their product's energy consumption.

Has anyone else found a really low energy router?

aboard_epsilon

Ben84 wrote: »

I'm hopefully going to be changing my router soon, and as it will be turned on 24/7 I want one that uses the least energy possible. I've been looking at the Lynksys router that uses 2.6 watt, but most router companies don't say a lot about their product's energy consumption.

Has anyone else found a really low energy router?

someone elses ha ha

There some powerful dongles on the market that will pick up half your town .

all the best.markj

moonrakerz

That is a very low figure already. That router will cost you somewhere around £2.50 A YEAR to run !

You will waste more money than that trying to find a lower figure - IF you can find one !

Norman_Castle

I use a plusnet thomson wireless router that uses 6.7 watts,measured with a electricity monitor.This cost about £8.50 per year in electricity.
Its a pity "Digital Britain" has not linked up with whatever part of the government that is trying to reduce carbon emissions and set consumtion limits for items such as wireless routers and freeview boxes etc.Some hard disc recorders use 20 watts in use and 18 watts on standby,others consume 20 watts in use and 3 watts on standby.If one can work as intended using much less power,surely the other is just burning electricity for no reason. Maybe its just to obvious.

aboard_epsilon

In a couple of years SSD hard-drives (Solid State Drives - like big pen drives..no moving parts) drives will be available to all and cheap........they are mega expensive now ..something like £500 for a 256gb one ..they only use 2 - 5 watts and are supposed to last 1.5 million hours.

so wait a couple of years, and like everything the prices will come down.

and those energy monitors only measure correctly with loads such as ovens and electric fires and conventional light bulbs .

for instance my swalec one tells me I'm using 8kw when i have my three phase converter going ...when I'm really using something like 1.2 kw

they are not..so Ive heard... power factor corrected like your mains meter.

all the best.markj

Fire_Fox

Given the low figures you may find it is more MSE and greener to simply get an old router off Freecycle or a mate and use that. Somebody on Techies board (IIRC) the other day said they owned three, if that is commonplace it is a waste of resources to buy a new router.

cybergibbons

The manufacturing and transport costs, both monetary and environmental terms, far outweigh any benefit you'd get by buying a new one.

Norman_Castle

Before moving to plusnet I was on dial up,hence no router.With plusnet the router was free and optional but £6.99 charged for postage.I was happy to pay this as I needed the router.However,if I had a useable router I would have saved my £6.99 and used what I had.Unfortunately all broadband providers send free routers automatically (even plusnet now).I cannot blame individuals for being pleased to receive a free router,but how many will be unused or replace last years near identical router which then becomes landfill.The £6.99 charge put people off taking the free router if it was not needed,surely a much better and enviromentally friendly system.I am dissapointed that plusnet have changed.

I have read that OWL type energy monitors that connect to a mains cable near the meter can be inaccurate.I use a plug in type monitor that measures individual appliances.It seems accurate.Mine was from Maplins,reduced to £7.I saw one recently in a supermarket for around the same price.I have saved the purchase cost many times over.I have listed my findings on this forum if anyone is interested.Searching using my username may take you there.
Can anyone explain how to quote lines from other posts rather than the full text.Thanks.

Ben84

Thanks for all the responses, and don't worry, I'm not buying a new router to save electric, it's just that my current router is really old, doesn't work that well with everyone's computers and has very dated security. I agree with the reasoning that with small appliances it doesn't make environmental or financial sense to replace them to save energy, but when things do need replacing it's a good chance to buy ones that are better for the environment and save some money on the bills.

Cardew

Norman_Castle wrote: »

Can anyone explain how to quote lines from other posts rather than the full text.Thanks.

Just copy(highlight text and right click mouse with curser in highlighted text)

Then paste that text into new post(right click mouse and paste)

Then highlight text and click the 'wrap quote' symbol at top of post.


e.g.

I use a plug in type monitor that measures individual appliances.It seems accurate.Mine was from Maplins,reduced to £7.I saw one recently in a supermarket for around the same price.

mjm3346

Norman_Castle wrote: »

Can anyone explain how to quote lines from other posts rather than the full text.Thanks.

You can use the quote function and just delete any bits you do not want.