Turn off Virgin Router to save electricity?

nelliedeen

I keep hearing about not turning off routers overnight because it takes time for them to re-syncronise but what about Virgin cable routers, can they be switched off when not being used withiout causing any problems?

macman

The saving you'd make is fairly trivial, turning your CH down 1C will probably save you ten times as much.
A typical router uses no more than 12W, so you can run it for more than 80 hours for a single kWh unit.

Swipe

Not matter how hard things get, turning off your router overnight is not worth the agro or minuscule saving if you value an optimal broadband connection.

ctdctd

My Virgin Smart Hub 3 uses 14Wh according to a plug in monitor.

I have it scheduled to switch off from 11pm to 6am saving 98Wh using a smart plug which uses about 18Wh over a day.

Savings about (98-18)/1000 x 365 x 0.30 = £8.76 a year.

Savings are confirmed by reduced overnight power consumption.

It's been running like this since 1st April with no noticeable change in broadband performance - and all my TV watching is streamed.

Reed_Richards

Time was, if you turned off your router too often then the equipment at the other end was liable to misinterpret that as an instability on the line and dial down your broadband speed to try to compensate.   I have no idea if that still happens or indeed if it ever happened with a cable router.     

Effician

Reed_Richards said:

Time was, if you turned off your router too often then the equipment at the other end was liable to misinterpret that as an instability on the line and dial down your broadband speed to try to compensate.   I have no idea if that still happens or indeed if it ever happened with a cable router.     

I have a feeling routers are not as sensitve to switching off as they used to be since g.inp & vectoring was implemented

Swipe

Reed_Richards said:

Time was, if you turned off your router too often then the equipment at the other end was liable to misinterpret that as an instability on the line and dial down your broadband speed to try to compensate.   I have no idea if that still happens or indeed if it ever happened with a cable router.     

That is still the case with non-cable broadband.

[Deleted User]

ctdctd said:

My Virgin Smart Hub 3 uses 14Wh according to a plug in monitor.

I have it scheduled to switch off from 11pm to 6am saving 98Wh using a smart plug which uses about 18Wh over a day.

Savings about (98-18)/1000 x 365 x 0.30 = £8.76 a year.

Savings are confirmed by reduced overnight power consumption.

It's been running like this since 1st April with no noticeable change in broadband performance - and all my TV watching is streamed.

Interesting stats that.  Your savings per year is within 3p cost of some Smart Plugs (such as TP-Link Tapo) presently costing £8.79 each on Amazon.  With your smart plug, if you wanted to switch it on agin after the off schedule has kicked in (sleepless night for example) could you do this from your tablet or would you have to manually press the switch on?  Not got any smart plugs so am totally ignorant of how easy/difficult they might be espcially for others in the house.

ctdctd

DerwentMailman said:

ctdctd said:

My Virgin Smart Hub 3 uses 14Wh according to a plug in monitor.

I have it scheduled to switch off from 11pm to 6am saving 98Wh using a smart plug which uses about 18Wh over a day.

Savings about (98-18)/1000 x 365 x 0.30 = £8.76 a year.

Savings are confirmed by reduced overnight power consumption.

It's been running like this since 1st April with no noticeable change in broadband performance - and all my TV watching is streamed.

Interesting stats that.  Your savings per year is within 3p cost of some Smart Plugs (such as TP-Link Tapo) presently costing £8.79 each on Amazon.  With your smart plug, if you wanted to switch it on agin after the off schedule has kicked in (sleepless night for example) could you do this from your tablet or would you have to manually press the switch on?  Not got any smart plugs so am totally ignorant of how easy/difficult they might be espcially for others in the house.

I'm using 433mhz wireless plugs controlled with a home brew kit of my making - there is a manual override as well as the schedule. The plugs (Status brand) cost £15 or so for 4 and are being used for various power saving tasks. They are not internet connected.

I've had issues with these plugs failing after only a few months - usually sticking on - so we shall see how long this batch last - six months and I'm in profit!

I'm not sure how well the TP-Link Tapo plugs would work as they connect to the internet - and when you switch the router off, bye bye internet!

[Deleted User]

Thanks for that information    I've actually got a Hub connected to my own Asus router so I may explore your suggestion. 

Coffeekup

I can't go into money savings, as I hear it's miniscule, unless the current price quadruples.
But I been running mine off every night almost for 7 months, no noticeable difference.

Looking back I had more issues years ago when it was plugged in all the time... You'd call up and they would say "unplug it for 30 seconds and it'll be fine" which it was. I used to tell friends and family the same unplug it to re-sync it. 

Years ago they were called old wives tales...
Anyway what's the worst that could happen? You'd be without the internet for 2 days and they'd send you a new router.