Lowest energy wireless internet router?

Cardew

mjm3346 wrote: »

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

That doesn't work if you want to reply to your post but include quotes from other posts. e.g.

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

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

Norman_Castle

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

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

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

Thanks.I think I"ve got it.

paulwf

Ben84 wrote: »

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.

ISPs regularly send a free router when you change your ISP. I wouldn't be surprised if lots of people now have a collection of them. Ask around or try and get a freebie off your ISP.

web_ferret

My Netgear router was on 24/7 for 2 years. I tested it with my maplin plug in monitor (as described above) and it draws 12W. So after some googleing my conculsion was the chance of it failing due to being switched on and off one a day is the same as it failing through being on all the time. The router is now on a time switch so is on 16 hours a day. I've had no problems with line speed or syncing since I started this 3 months ago.
I calculated that I'll save £6 a year (I already had an unused timer) - every little helps.
Oh the timer draws 1W by the way.

I could always just plug it in (and out) when needed but the timer is a compramise for now as the router serves 3 machines and mutilple on and offs a day may be detrimental.

BargainGalore

My Draytek Vigor2820n draws 10w according to manual

Most routers use little power anyway it wont make much difference in a year between 10-20w

Ben84

BargainGalore wrote: »

My Draytek Vigor2820n draws 10w according to manual

Most routers use little power anyway it wont make much difference in a year between 10-20w

I'm currently looking at one which uses 2.6 watt, so I'd probably not even consider one that uses 20 watt, and 10 watt is still pretty high in comparison.

However, to use these figures meaningfully, the difference between a 10 watt and 20 watt modem is about 87 kWh a year extra, and assuming the average UK electric sources about 41 Kg of carbon dioxide extra. It is also at my electric price an extra £10 a year, which means if I kept it as long as the current modem it would save me about £50, and actually pay for itself in saved electric, and save around 200 Kg of carbon dioxide compared to buying the 20 watt one.

For a fairly small effort when replacing an old appliance to check the power consumptions and just buy the better one, I think that is a significant difference.

Gloomendoom

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?

2.6 watts seems suspiciously low to me.

I may be wrong, but I think that you are quoting the power consumed (wasted) by just the mains adapter and not the router.

Fred_Bear_2

The router supplied to me by o2, the Wireless Box II which is a Thomson SpeedTouch TG585v7 uses 7 watts according to my Maplin plug-in monitor.

Gloomendoom

Norman_Castle wrote: »

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.

Fred_Bear wrote: »

The router supplied to me by o2, the Wireless Box II which is a Thomson SpeedTouch TG585v7 uses 7 watts according to my Maplin plug-in monitor.

Interesting. O2 and Plusnet supply exactly the same router, so both measurements seem close enough to be reliable..

As I said above, be wary of the energy consumption claimed by the manufacturers as they usually do not include the energy wasted by the plug in power supply.