Old Sky+ Box - an observation on power use.

Sea_Shell

This year, we have ditched Sky for a Firestick.

This means that we no longer leave the Sky Box on to record stuff whilst we are away.  (it still works for live TV)

I've noticed that now, whilst away, we turn it off at the wall, we have saved 0.42kwh per day electricity.     So a constant draw of ~17.5w     The modern boxes are probably much more efficient that these old ones.

So it is quite surprising how quickly these little things can add up.    We're now going to leave if off until we really need it, as for live TV, it is still the most convenient and best viewing method IMO.

For info, all the rest of our "dormant house use" came to ~1.06 kwh per day, without the box on.   Alarm/Heating control/F&F.

Anyway, just thought I'd share my observations.   

Mstty

Definitely savings to be made

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/79013088#Comment_79013088

https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/6176725/sky-q-1tb-box-power-consumption

tghe-retford

I found the same thing with putting sound systems and set-top-boxes (not going into a low power eco mode at the time) on standby and the volume level you use. Keeping those things on standby will use a not insignificant amount of power. And the higher the volume, the more power you will use to drive the speakers and subwoofer (if applicable) - and the more likely you will annoy your neighbours. Also applies to battery driven devices like radios.

I now make a habit of turning off devices at the plugs and keeping the volume down as low as I can tolerate.

wrf12345

An even older skybox was doing more than 25w on standby (it may have been searching continuously for a network connection as I was just using it to view live TV and did not have one) so that was quickly dumped as I had a less convenient sat box (no playlists) that was much more efficient. Eventually I was forced to stop paying the TV licence (otherwise I could not justify paying the absurd energy s/c's) and go the firestick route - 40 inch LED TV. firestick plus small amplifier adds up to 60W when running and zero when not in use as I turn everything off. I stopped using my HiFI with the TV and just use it to play music now, roughly 70W with amp plus cd player.

wild666

Sea_Shell said:

This year, we have ditched Sky for a Firestick.

This means that we no longer leave the Sky Box on to record stuff whilst we are away.  (it still works for live TV)

I've noticed that now, whilst away, we turn it off at the wall, we have saved 0.42kwh per day electricity.     So a constant draw of ~17.5w     The modern boxes are probably much more efficient that these old ones.

So it is quite surprising how quickly these little things can add up.    We're now going to leave if off until we really need it, as for live TV, it is still the most convenient and best viewing method IMO.

For info, all the rest of our "dormant house use" came to ~1.06 kwh per day, without the box on.   Alarm/Heating control/F&F.

Anyway, just thought I'd share my observations.   

If the box is using 0.42kWh per day, that's 153.3kWh per year or nearly £49 per year. I would ditch the box altogether and use Freeview. Personally I don't watch any live TV, only catch up services from ITVX, all4 and My5 plus UKTV Play. Using the Sky box will be extra on top of what the TV uses. 

Raxiel

I've not measured it directly, but we have one of the newer Sky Q boxes and its not much better.

What's worse, 95% of the stuff it's used for is the Youtube Kids app, which could be run natively on the TV itself, just without the voice control our youngest likes so much.

Minimum contract term ends in a couple of months and it's going then.

brewerdave

My observation - Sky Q/HD charges dwarf the standby costs of the box - if you can afford Sky's charges ...........

Raxiel

brewerdave said:

My observation - Sky Q/HD charges dwarf the standby costs of the box - if you can afford Sky's charges ...........

Well, yeah, there is that too. In our case, the fact we don't watch any of the subscription content is the reason its going, the fact they only pay lip service to energy usage with new box after new box is just an additional annoyance.

This only applies to the TV, still pretty happy with their broadband and certainly get our monies worth there.

dunstonh

The Sky Q mini boxes draw around 17w in standby.    We turn our mini boxes off now when the TV isnt in use.

My observation - Sky Q/HD charges dwarf the standby costs of the box - if you can afford Sky's charges

People with wealth generally still like to look after their money. 

brewerdave

dunstonh said:

The Sky Q mini boxes draw around 17w in standby.    We turn our mini boxes off now when the TV isnt in use.

My observation - Sky Q/HD charges dwarf the standby costs of the box - if you can afford Sky's charges

People with wealth generally still like to look after their money. 

So do these wealthy people haggle with Sky over subscription costs ?  I worked out that leaving the box in standby was costing £30 pa so I arranged to use smart plugs to shut it down for ~ 8 hours overnight reducing the cost considerably.
 I then haggled ~ £45 pm off of the standard sub for my Sky package.
I bet there are still loads of customers paying Sky northward of £100pm for TV alone.

Raxiel

brewerdave said:

dunstonh said:

The Sky Q mini boxes draw around 17w in standby.    We turn our mini boxes off now when the TV isnt in use.

My observation - Sky Q/HD charges dwarf the standby costs of the box - if you can afford Sky's charges

People with wealth generally still like to look after their money. 

So do these wealthy people haggle with Sky over subscription costs ?  I worked out that leaving the box in standby was costing £30 pa so I arranged to use smart plugs to shut it down for ~ 8 hours overnight reducing the cost considerably.
 I then haggled ~ £45 pm off of the standard sub for my Sky package.
I bet there are still loads of customers paying Sky northward of £100pm for TV alone.

Some of them probably do, there's a section of these boards dedicated to it. Although it's usually about getting more for the same price, rather than paying less. The sly move to 18 month contracts makes it harder to get a deal though. You can't just renew with each Black Friday bargain, and any retention offers (in my experience) are only for 12 of the 18 months, so you're stuck at full price for at least 5 of them.

Not speaking for anyone else, but if I (or the rest of the family) actually watched a lot of subscription TV then I wouldn't mind paying for it, because I'd actually be getting something for my money. Whether it's good value is an opinion for each person.But high standby draw when something isn't being used is straight up waste,

Anyway, I stuck a spare P110 between the Sky Q main box and the wall out of curiosity this morning. It's drawing 11W right now, which isn't actually all that bad, and lower than I'd expected, although sky like to pre-load shows they want to promote onto the disk in the background so it peaks higher at times even when off, will take a look after a couple of days for a better 'average'