Smart Hub 2 Power Consumption

[Eco_warrior]

We've just had our hub replaced with the Smart Hub 2 just in case it was the cause of broadband drop outs.  As with all new electrical devices we get, I checked the power consumption.  I was really disappointed to find that it is about 10.8W and doesn't reduce even if 5GHz WiFi is turned off.  Our previous Hub 5 had smart power saving and only consumed about 6.5W with just the 2.4GHz enabled. 

This is a big backward step when everyone is doing their best to reduce electricity usage, cost & CO2 emissions.  10.8W may not sound a lot but adds up to 92kWhr per year or £32 at current prices.  If you multiply this by the number of houses and businesses with hubs in the UK there's probably an entire power station output supplying them.  Not happy.

[imjolly]

although the recommendation is to leave router(SH2) connected 24/7 you can always turn it off at night and on again next morning as many do but it may eventually affect you connection speed

[gg30340]

The SM2 has different specifications than the HH5 so a straight forward comparison may not be possible.

For example the SM2 as well as being a DSL modem and Router it is also a Dect base station for the Digital Voice phone system. This draws power however it should alleviate the need if you presently have wireless Dect phones for you to have a separate Dect base station using the power that it draws, that is assuming you are going to use Digital Voice.

If you are not going to use the Digital Voice phone service you could always source and use a different router that consumes less power.  

[Les-Gibson]

You may be able to reduce that 10.8 W a little.

Basic Hub Light Control

[Eco_warrior]

Yes, this is good advice and we often do turn it off at night or when away.  We've never noticed any reduction in speed as a result.  The internet connection has been almost faultless for many years but in the last couple of weeks has intermittently dropped out especially first thing in the morning.

[Eco_warrior]

After further experimentation I have discovered that the power consumption can be reduced to 7.1W by disabling all WiFi and using a direct connection to my laptop.  Unfortunately this is not a practical solution when so many devices around the home need a WiFi connection.

[gg30340]

Is 11.5 pence per day really such a drain on your finances so that you can use the Internet to connect your Internet connected devices 24/7 if you choose to do so.

Perhaps you should consider doing away with some of your Internet connected devices as they will no doubt be using electricity to either run them or recharge them.

[Eco_warrior]

Of course 11.5p per day is not an issue in itself but the typical household electricity bill of £1200 per year is the sum total of lots of tiny contributions so we need to pay attention to all of them.  Most of my WiFi connected devices are either off most of the time or take tiny amounts on standby.  For example the smart TV takes 0.3W (and still manages to update the programme guide), the smart meter IHD takes 0.8W, my automatic weather station 1.2W and so on.  Most devices are required to take less than 1W on standby, so why is there no regulation on what a router or hub takes?

[garybs29]

Sometimes words really do fail me, a device that provides a connection to the internet is completely different from a device that can be on standby & isn't used all the time. There's far bogger issues than a hub contributing to the bill yearly but this isn't the place for them tbh

[Les-Gibson]

You can probably save more by doing away with unnecessary gadgets like your weather station and whatever other devices you have that are consuming power for little or no return  than you will save by reducing the amount of power your router uses.