Modem on: Forgotten way of being an energy guzzler?

Yep. I don't have any of that crap at home, but a hotel I stay at when away from home was recently forced by Comcast to install a set-top box for the TV. Curiosity got the better of me, and I brought along my kill-a-watt last week.

20 watts, on OR 'off.'

 

I read the NRDC report. It estimates that 100 kWh a year is used between the modem and router. I know from checking my devices that my home network consumes 6.5 watts * 720 kWh/month * 12 months/year = 56.16 kWh a year.

Compare that to the average household electricity use of 12,000 kWh a year.

What is true for OP is true for the nation: There are much lower fruit to pick. So while it certainly makes sense to make network devices that consume less energy*, let's not ignore the elephants in the house. You know, the other 99.54% of energy consumption. One Billion USD sounds like a lot, until we consider than NRDC decided to ignore the other 213 Billion USD Americans spend on home energy yearly.

*I was actually thinking about how a low power device might be designed a few weeks ago. The wireless router spends (I presume) most of it's energy sending out a strong enough signal to be noticed, but the frequency of how often the signal is sent could be modified. During 'sleep' say the router signals once a second, but when awake at the frequency used now. The trade-off would be a small delay to wake up the router but then normal operation.

 

+1
Our security system ties into the web, which uses our modum (plus our router, plus our bridge) - which forwards info to our smart phones. Then there are the other web accessed goodies, turning up/down the thermostat, remote lighting etc. Then there's the email translated to voice sent to phones. Seems to get more & more complex.
Then there's the other thing ... cable company hardware. You get what ever they got. We've asked for energy star compliant hardware only to be told, 'sorry - this is all we got, and this is what you get'. If the cable company's giant bandwidth pipe is the best game in town, what's an energy conscious person to do.

 

Put the box on a switch so that it can actually be turned OFF when not in use.

 

Which doesn't help when things like VoIP and security systems need 24hr access to the web.

 

If the post was not about TV boxes, you might have a point.

 

Hill's post about his need for 24hr internet. He was talking about the cable company's modem, not TV box.

 

If that is the case, then he has choices in modem. Even Comcast has a list of 'fully supported' cable modems; and of course many others work just fine but are not 'supported.'

I might check my old Motorola cable modem's power draw I have lying around that was used on and off for years whenever I chose Comcast for the few months they offered a new customer promotion. Nowadays I have DSL. The 'supported' modem I bought used for $25 off Ebay consumes 2.4 watts and can accept a 6 Mbps connection. I would be surprised if the modems that support VDSL and 20 Mbps connections draw much if any more power.

Moral: the modem is unlikely to be an issue, even for an energy miser like me. If it is, get a different one. And in the meantime put switches on the the nasty vampires in the house, like a TV set-top box.

 

thanks, is my laptop drawing power even after i shut it down but leave the tranny plugged in?

 

If the laptop remains connected to the transformer, then yes. This continues after the laptop's battery is fully charged. Same thing is true for other devices too, like cell phones.

Transformers are pigs.

 

if i somply unplug it at the laptop, the tranny won't use anything? that's easier than unplugging from wall. the is a lighted blue ring at the laptop end of the plug.

 

Right

 

Some chargers are "smart chargers" and will draw virtually no power when the device is charged. IPad, IPhone and MacBooks are pretty good. I our off grid house, with the chargers plugged in, there is not enough current draw to trigger the inverter from sleep mode, (under 5 watts). hat said, most wall warts that power everything from table radios to everything else continue to draw while plugged in. Power strips are an energy misers best friend.

My rocket hub modem, draws under 10 watts and provides a wireless LAN router internal, so I get both for 10 watts. The VoIP box draws another 10 watts. I kill them both over night.

Icarus

 

^^ 'under 5 watts' and 'virtually no draw' apparently leave 5 watts to ignore
Since this thread started out as a discussion of 24/7 modems and routers that are drawing ~ 3 - 5 watts a piece, we should not discount all the other devices that may be in a home that are similar draws.

Transformers fall in this category, as do many machines with displays. E.g., ovens, microwaves, washing machines ... ... the list is endless. Not including the fridge, my home draws 18 watts at baseline. I found it challenging to reach that level, and people who have not gone out gremlin slaying can have 10x that amount.

I have seen an exception or two to my rule that machines with displays are best avoided. My Zoji Rice Cooker has a small LCD display that draws too little power to register on the Belkin meter. I think that means less than 0.5 watt.

 

i'll have to look for these smart power strips that turn themselves of. it will be a lot of work to rewire the television cabinets, so i might as well do it right the first time. thanks everyone!

 

My modems definitely get hot, like, if it's winter I can warm my hands over them.

I called my ISP, they said I could unplug it so I think I may start doing that.

 

About $6 a unit from Amazon.

 

thanks, these are switches. i won't be able to access them once installed. someone mentioned a smart switch that automatically shuts off after so much time of non use?

 

Just to ensure the innocent are blamed with the guilty, transformers are not energy hogs. What are energy hogs are power supplies with no engineering to minimize parasitics. The problem is what is upstream and downstream of the transformer, not the transformer itself. All your other points apply, but extremely efficient and smart power supplies use transformers as well as lousy designs. The problem is the market is flooded with lousy designs.

 

Yep, like the ones I linked to. But you do have to activate them manually.