Should you unplug your router at night?
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bazfile Posted messages 58428 Registration date Status Modérateur Last intervention -
Hello,
I got the special series box from Bouygues, a white modem for €29.99. To free up the wall socket, I also got a repeater so that I could have the modem by the desk and the box by the TV.
It's very complicated every day to turn my TV back on; it can take 1 hour after several restarts, and then finally, I have to turn everything off and on again.
I wanted to know if it's expensive not to unplug the box at night, just turning off the TV. Anyway, that's the only thing Bouygues advises me to do to address this issue.
Thank you for your advice.
12 réponses
Hello,
10% seems like a bad answer, 2 users who have the same box in a studio or a 10-room house will not have the same electricity bill at all, plus we can heat with gas or electricity. Therefore, we need an estimate for the consumption of the box alone, like: https://www.commentcamarche.net/maison/box-connexion-internet/30573-eteindre-box-internet-nuit-bis/
Hello,
Yet another site that has looked into the problem:
https://www.jechange.fr/energie/consommation/box-internet
I have a rather power-hungry box (FB Revolution fiber); its consumption is estimated at about 44 €/year. So if I unplug the box at night (8h), I would save about 15 €/year! It's the start of a fortune!
In practice, my box is always powered on, as long as Enedis keeps the electrons oscillating...
Besides that, I note in your initial message that the box needs to be restarted several times to get it going and that the process can take 1 hour.
You must have an issue with your equipment because starting a box takes 2 or 3 minutes at most, (unless there are firmware updates).
So, a problem to resolve with Bouygues.
What is well conceived is clearly expressed,
And the words to say it come easily.
(Boileau)
Personally,
I would never advise cutting off a box at night; it brings some problems upstream and is harmful in terms of reliability. If anything, turning off the Wi-Fi signal already reduces consumption by 5/6 W, which is good, but if you have home automation devices that use Wi-Fi, it's best not to do that, as it disrupts those devices.
And there you go....
But goodness, those line breaks are so annoying!!
Hello
leave your box on 24/7; it's not the 10 EUROS a year you will save that will make a difference in your budget
But; above all; you won't have all those morning setup issues anymore
On the other hand; if you go on vacation (8 days / 15 days) yes you can unplug everything
Today, I'm not doing anything, if I haven't finished, I'll continue tomorrow
Hello.
A Bouygues box consumes between 6 and 7 cents per day, which is about €25 per year.
bazfile
Moderator/Security Contributor.
A hello, a response, and a thank you are always appreciated.
Hello,
The formula I provided in <4> is mathematically accurate, but the results mentioned on various sites, including the one in question, are biased because they mix apples and oranges.
The results in question refer not to the consumption of the Box itself but to everything that is connected in triple or quadruple play, which is why in <4> the result is nearly double that of the formula.
Bouygues does not create a new Box for every commercial operation; it seems to be a Bbox Must, whose base consumption is 12.2 W, or 12.2x24x365x0.25, which amounts to about €26.70 per year, indeed consistent with 26.70/365, roughly 7 cents per day.
As I pointed out elsewhere, this calculation is approximate and often defaults to a scenario as it only reflects the kWh consumed, does not break it down into peak and off-peak hours, and does not take into account the prorated taxes added in proportion to consumption.
However, with all these approximations and reducing by 50% for usage in peak hours, we still reach the same conclusion; the savings are at best only €13 per year.
https://www.jechange.fr/energie/consommation/box-internet
Hello,
According to the websites, they say to expect 10% or more of the annual bill. For me, that's at least €80, hence my question.
What "sites," "on" is an indefinite pronoun?
A percentage calculation is stupid by definition, the consumption in percentage would depend on the number of electrical devices in the home, and anyway it’s not easy to estimate, because neither a washing machine nor light bulbs work continuously.
The only certain way, assuming the Box is plugged in every day, to check is the arithmetic calculation in the mode
C=H x 365 x (P/1000)
where P is the power of the Box as specified in its documentation and H is the number of hours of daily operation; you then need to multiply C by the average unit price of the kWh, which is also not trivial (rates can be peak and off-peak and you need to include the subscription cost and taxes) and then relate it to the operating range (for example x 12/24 if on for only 12 hours a day).
Under these conditions, the consumption of a 11W triple play Box (power-hungry) is more readily on the order of about forty euros (full rate) and you save €20 if it is turned off for 12 hours during peak hours.
In percentage terms, which again means nothing because it is just an average and depends on the composition of the household and its equipment, we are more readily around 2%
https://www.kelwatt.fr/guide/conso/box-internet
Hello
You can save 10% on the annual bill for the box by turning it off for 8 hours a day, which is €4 if it costs €40 a year or €2.5 if it costs €25 a year in electricity.
We'll have a lot of issues to deal with every time we restart; all the devices will have to update that they should have done overnight, including the box. It's an ecological activist's routine every morning, not a simple gesture like turning off a lamp while passing by.
Boxes are not designed to be turned off, that’s the problem.
It’s the manufacturers who will replace all the boxes to achieve partial standby modes with very low consumption while we sleep, and multiplying that by the total number of boxes means €3 multiplied by millions that will no longer be wasted collectively.
They are right to denounce this waste to raise awareness, but we can only act on the ISPs who install and rent the boxes to us, and they are the ones who buy them. It pays off, but in the long run.
I don't see how this is an ecologist activist approach, or maybe it's a part-time activism, during their sleep.
When one has a full awareness of the state of the environment in general and a genuine ecological approach, one doesn't settle for these small token measures that provide a daily dose of cheap good conscience.
Of course, this could be part of a much more ambitious plan, but on its own, it brings no benefit, if for example, one goes off to take a flight to the Seychelles for a week afterward; certainly, that's not the main topic, but it's to shed light on a value scale at this level.
To return to the main topic, current boxes consume half as much as those from 10 years ago, and future ones will consume another half compared to today; there is more work on rationalization in that direction.
Arithmetic is curious; if a Box is cut off for 8 hours out of 24, it's not 10% of its electrical consumption that disappears, but 33.33...%
An update of the Box itself doesn't happen every day; in fact, nothing at all if the scheduled tasks aren’t programmed during the cut-off times.
The result is just the classic one of an EDF strike or a wild power cut: the Box takes some time to restart, and then the connected devices need to resynchronize. It's not merely a quarter of an hour; it only lasts a few minutes, but it's annoying.
Hello
Oh yes, 33% in theory, but someone took the time to measure the power consumption of a box that was never unplugged, and the same one unplugged for 8 hours at night.
Upon restarting, there's a surge in consumption, and at the end of the test, it's only 10% less electricity consumed. That's all.
And the time spent plugging back in takes into account a somewhat complex setup, where you have to be present to monitor and restart this or that at the right moment.
If everything runs automatically, fine, but that's not what BettyM22 is currently experiencing in her setup. She probably has to redo some configurations every time.
The TV, what's upstream and downstream, and after the box has restarted, I experience that with every power outage, and the hours not saved on certain devices. Even if I don’t leave the TV on, I know.
PC and phone reconnect, but I still have a program to start manually, otherwise it messes up 1 or 2 days of work; it can’t recover from a power cut by itself in the middle. No ECC memory or converter in case of a blackout, and limited by a 10W processor. Everyone has their "little gestures" for the planet.
Hello,
Well, after all this I don't know what to do now. I unplug my box out of habit, I don't like leaving devices on except for the fridge and freezer.
The one I have from Bouygues is not the MUST that I sent back, but the old white Miami model they provided for B&You exclusive clients at €29.99.
I'm going to do a one-week test to see the consumption: I will only turn off the TV with the remote and my soundbar that is connected to it.
After that, I'll decide ;-)
Thanks for your feedback anyway.
Hello,
it doesn't change anything, this Box operates depending on where we read to consume around 10-12W.
Refer to the calculations above based on 11W saving at best €20.
In the second hypothesis, we consume 12/11 = 9% more, or roughly 40X1.09=43.6 savings if 50% €21.8.
In the first one, 10/12 = 17% less, approximately €33 reduced to €16.50.
turning off the TV and the soundbar doesn’t make sense because their consumption is not included in these calculations and they only consume in standby if they are off, despite the Box being on.
My TV doesn't stay on, no interest.
The problem is the repeater that doesn't connect immediately even though all the lights are on. I called Bouygues but for a solution they tell me to leave everything on.
So I see, I notice, and I decide what to do.
Thank you anyway.
Now, since you seem to want to do some calculations, compare the cost at stake to the real culprits: the monthly EDF subscription cost and the one that is far ahead of all the others when it occurs, electric water heater and heating-air conditioning for a monthly amount close for each item to the annual cost of the Box.
The problem is the repeater doesn't connect immediately even though all the indicators are on. I called Bouygues, but their solution is to leave everything on.
They're right; it’s not worth the hassle for 2 or 3 cents savings a day, especially since you can put your TV box on standby.
I am wary; the author seems to be from the 22 where the tropics have not yet arrived.
I, on the other hand, live in the 83 coastal area (in the Verdon, it is not so rare to have snow in winter) and in a residence equipped with reverse heating and cooling units whose consumption is easy to measure since it is independent of other electrical consumption.
The expense is not negligible, but if we cool in summer for a few hours a day, we heat little in winter with a long period of neither in between.
I don't want to leave my devices on at night; I've never done it. It's not today that I'm going to start.
So, I'm stuck with a repeater that doesn't work properly. It's annoying!
Hi,
Storms have no effect on the fiber, but you are right that plugging and unplugging is more harmful to reliability than stable 24/7 operation.