Scheduling Wi-Fi off

[Eco_warrior]

Now that we have been upgraded to full fibre the total power consumption of the Smart Hub 2 and ONT is about 15W.  Our old hub used to draw about 6.5W and we turned it off at night to save more power, which is not an option now as we would lose our phone connection (digital voice).  The annual power usage has therefore jumped from about 38kWh to about 132kWh at an additional cost of around £30.  After some experimentation I have found that the total power consumption reduces to about 10.5W if the Wi-Fi is turned off.  Unfortunately it seems that this can only be done manually via the hub manager which is a bit inconvenient as you then have to plug in an ethernet device to turn it back on in the morning.  You can schedule the Wi-Fi to be blocked to individual devices but not all Wi-Fi to save power.  I think it would be really useful, for people who are keen to save power, if the Wi-Fi could be turned off on a timed schedule.  Could this be done with a simple software update to the hub or the hub manager?  Perhaps it would be possible to go even further and put the hub in to a low power standby mode that only maintained sufficient functionality to keep the phone line working?

[dcreesy]

This is a good question for BT. I tried years ago to request this on various BT forums to no avail.

I have been using the TP Link VR2800 for years, good speeds and it has wifi scheduling to drop the wifi 00:00 - 07:00.

I don't want wifi active disturbing sleep patterns, but also you make a good point about power consumption.

For those reading this and thinking why don't you just power off the router... the wifi schedule allows routing to remain for security cameras, wired computers to remain connected. Many have suggested this on older forums, even the BT help desk recently.

I'm about to have fibre installed this week and I'm going to have to use my own router per above.

[dcreesy]

ROUTING:

Update after configuring 12 July 2024 on the BT Fibre 900 package:

Configured the VR1200 Operations Mode as Wireless Router Mode, in Advanced Settings. And configured the TP-Link Archer VR2800 router within the default range as 192.168.1.253 (BT Router 192.168.1.254, range .64 - 253)

Disabled the BT Router wifi.

This works fine. This allows me to use the TP-Link VR1200 Wifi and use the wifi scheduling feature in Advanced Settings and drop wifi midnight to 6.30 am. 

Speedtest is 600+Mbps over the VR1200 wifi. If wired to the BT Router its over 1000Mbps.

Note: I tried previously using 192.168.1.60 which is outside the range (but using same subnet mask 255.255.255.0) but was blocked by the firewall and issued an UNSOLICIT message in the eventlog. It worked with the firewall off, but I didnt want that option. I think (and I will stand corrected) if i add port forwarding to that address (192.168.1.60) it would work.

HOME PHONE:

I plugged in my normal DECT phone into the back on the BT Router and short-pressed the WPS (dual function WPS button) on the back of the BT router and it beeped once and works fine with a dial tone.

This means all the copper into the house for the old ADSL & Phone is now redundant. The BT engineer told me when installing the fibre, that at some point the copper phone will stop working after a week or two, as I opted for digital voice in my package.

[WSH]

If you’re concerned about saving the planet, why not use a cabled network and turn Wi-Fi off altogether?  It uses far less power than Wi-Fi.  If it’s economics, £30 a year is 58p a week.  Not exactly saving a lot. 

@dcreesy  when you say configured the 2800 to use 253 it sounds as though you’ve given it a static address inside the range being issued by DHCP.  That will cause an issue sooner or later.  Static addresses need to be outside the range issued by DHCP.

Also, not sure why you should plug the DECT base station in and press WPS.  If it’s plugged into the hub it just goes, it has nothing to do with WPS.

[dcreesy]

1) Yes it’s static IP in the WiFi routers AND these IP addresses are assigned in the BT WiFi router so it should not cause conflict in the future. Is there another reason for issues?

If set outside the BT router range, How would you prevent the  firewall blocking, would that be using port forwarding?

(When outside the range there is an UNSOLICITED message in the event log and the device is blocked).

2) The BT router WPS button has a dual function with the BT Digital Voice set up as well as the traditional function.

3) I want wifi scheduling to close WiFi at night for health reasons not eco reasons. Wifi used during the day for mobile phones. Everything else is wired.

[WSH]

1) You set static addresses on the device not on the DHCP.  You maybe confusing this with a “reserved address”, which is set on the DHCP but not on the device.  Either way, you can’t set it on the device and on the DHCP.  Setting it outside the range issued by DCHP does not mean setting it outside of the network address.  It must still be within 192.168.1.x /24, just not the range DHCP is issuing.  Or are you trying to run two separate subnets across two routers?

2) WPS has no function with a plug-in phone/base station, (unless it's to connect a phone plugged into a remote adapter).  Period.  I believe it is used to connect the handsets direct to the hub DECT, but if that is the case, the base station is redundant.

3) Why not turn off the hub Wi-Fi and use a third-party wireless access point on a plug-in 24/7 timer?

[dcreesy]

1) Thanks for this. When I tried outside the range, it was indeed 192.168.1.x

on the TP-Link VR1200 WiFi only device, it does allow me to assign an IP without Turing on DHCP. So I used 192.168.1.253 and then switched on “Always use same IP address” on the main BT router (DHCP) for the VR1200 WiFi only router.

2) BT digital voice/dect phone connection: I’m not going to dwell on this as it’s a bit off topic. And it works with his solution without having to buy a BT Digital voice handset.

3) Yes you’re right. Now that the BT Hub is doing the routing and nothing else is connected to the TP-Link VR1200 (wireless router mode),

I could indeed simply add a power plug timer. But if I’m up past midnight (when it’s scheduled to close) I easily click the switch on the router to bring back WiFi for another 15 mins.

However, if someone wanted to install this solution they could achieve the same results with a router that doesn’t have a  WiFi scheduler function by using the power plug timer, as long as the main router is up performing dhcp and internet etc.

[chrisjp]

"The annual power usage has therefore jumped from about 38kWh to about 132kWh at an additional cost of around" £30.

My electricity unit rate is 22.59 pence/kWh, so your extra annual consumption of 38kWh would cost me £8.58. I don't know how you've arrived at a figure of £30 unless you suffer with extraordinarily expensive electricity.
Annual consumption of 132kWh at my unit rate equates to £29.82 so your TOTAL annual cost (not the increase caused by the SH2) is your £30. Given that broadband service costs anything from around £20 to £50 per month, the electricity cost of £30/year (£2.50/month) doesn't seem to me to be much to worry about.

[HHGTTG]

It's not April 1st is it? No, I have just checked the Calendar, of course it is not.

[Eco_warrior]

The annual consumption has jumped from 38kWh to 132kWh which is why it cost me an extra £30 (a bit less now as electricity costs have fallen).  Of course the extra cost isn't a lot in the grand scheme of things but all these things add up.  Most devices now have a standby consumption of <1W but unfortunately this doesn't apply to routers and fibre adaptors.  When you multiply the router consumption by millions of households and businesses it amounts to a big contributor to CO2 emissions.