Switching smart hub 2 off at night

[cherry76]

Just been switched to digital voice, did not have an option not to as was recontracted for 24 months. There is an elderly person in the house who will switch everything off at night despite telling him not to. Now that the phone is connected to the bb, a bit concerned of missed calls but who is likely to call at nights except for an emergency call. Will it cause damage to the hub by switching it on and off? It’s habit for him everything switched off before bedtime. Thanks

[jac_95]

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[imjolly]

@cherry76 

if when you recontracted and got DV you also moved to fibre to the home FTTP and had an ONT fitted (square white box about 4") then switching off at night wont have any effect apart from no calls.  however if you have FTTC (no white box) then it can be detrimental to your connection to switch off every night - but I am sure many old school still do

[Keith_Beddoe]

@cherry76 

It will not affect the hub itself, but it may fail to re-establish the phone connection when its powered back up., so its worth checking each morning to make sure there is dial tone.

Its not ideal, unless you have access to a mobile phone to make calls when the hub is turned off, or does not connect.

One solution might be 12V battery backup to the hub, so that when the power is turned off at the mains, the 12V battery keeps it active. That would also be useful if there was a power cut.

[WSH · Accepted solution]

If it’s based on FTTC, (that is, the hub is still connected through the old phone socket), it may well lead to lower connection speeds than the best the line is capable of.  This is because the automatic line management, (or DLM), might interpret it as an unstable line, reducing the speed to try to stabilize it.  Any calls when it is off should just go through to 1571, however.

I too am a great one for turning everything off at night but there are limits.  Have you tried pointing out to him that it’s like the fridge, it has to be on all the time?  If it's cost he's worried about, the cost is pennies.

[cherry76]

The phone line is connected to the hub. He is the old school, he worries about fire safety.

[WSH]

Yes, but where does the hub connect to?  If it's still the phone socket on the wall then it's FTTC.  (If it's a box on the wall with lights on it, then its FTTP (Full Fibre) and unaffected by turning it off).

Just for the record, I've just doing a quick calculation.  For an 8 hour night the cost is about 3.5p based on 40p per unit.

[iniltous]

As the OP has recontracted , so had  broadband previously, and it’s just the provision of Digital Voice that’s ‘new’ , the power consumption and likely damaging effects of switching off at night and back on in the morning haven’t changed , presumably they switched off of the router  at night before DV….if it’s the possibility of missing an incoming call ( pretty slim chance I would suggest ) that’s now a worry  , put the DV number onto divert to a mobile overnight ,

If the OP didn’t switch the router off a night previously why start now 

[HHGTTG]

That's about £2/month based on 24 hours and a unit price of 25p/unit. Our standing charge is just over 50p/day with good old EDF!

[cherry76]

Any idea how much is keeping the voice adapter on 24/7 Mine unit is 38p? Thanks