Idle power consumption getting more concerning

Reducing power on existing equipment is difficult as they do not contain the hardware needed to manage power use.

For new equipment designs there is a trade involved, the more power is managed the slower the Sonos will be able to recover from sleeping and start playing.

I’d not mind saving a bit of power, but not at the cost of doubling my open the app to start listening time. Keep in mind Sonos is not like a TV, it is always active on the network keeping in sync and contact with other Sonos devices and controllers.

If Sonos did a “Wake on LAN” type setup it might reduce power on new designs but if it also caused the long wait powering on a Sonos with a smart switch does I’d hate it.

Long wait???  My car takes longer to get started than a Sonos speaker.  Should I leave it idling 24 hrs a day for instant use?! 

You could probably setup a 3rd party voice control macro to “Power UP Sonos” and “Power Down Sonos”. With a little more work, there could be power control Groups and alarms.

If I am not mistaken the EU has a mandate on standby power use to be less the 0.5W for domestic audio kit, and I suspect for TV as well. 

Sonos must be exempt from that by virtue of what it is technically described to be, but if Bluesound is a lot lower - and I do not know that it is - Sonos certainly needs to move to that level, whatever it is in reality. 

And I agree that getting used to some time before the music starts is just a mindset thing. On the other hand, there is fusion power on its way now😁.

Yes, but I suspect that we will be on S10 and series 10 by the time fusion is ready for prime time.

As a data point - Echo devices all tend to be 2 to 3 watts in standby mode as well. Far more than the 0.5.

Yes. That’s what it was designed for. Turning them off and waiting for the system to start up is a choice though.

For those interested:

EU Ecodesign directive [1] regulations specify permitted standby power and impose 0.5W for some device classes, not for all.

Sonos is in so called “Networked Standy”, devices in this mode are (unfortunately some might say) currently not subject to the 0.5Watts limit but to much higher limits.

I say currently because 2022 a review is ongoing [2,3].

Chances are (looking at the drafts [3,4]), that the kind of equipment that Sonos is will be subject to a revised 2Watts Networked Standby limit in the future.

That said, it might be interesting to note that the draft annex [4] scrutinized the market and deemed best in class devices - available today - to be below 1W.

Well - Sonos - obviously not best in class but 1 Watt totally feasible. That is my conclusion.

P.S.: The quoted papers make some very interesting estimates about power being wasted in standby in general also.

[1]

https://commission.europa.eu/energy-climate-change-environment/standards-tools-and-labels/products-labelling-rules-and-requirements/energy-label-and-ecodesign/energy-efficient-products/mode-standby-and-networked-standby_en

[2]

https://rohs.ca/news/2022/03/20/eu-ecodesign-requirements-for-off-standby-and-networked-standby-modes/

[3]

https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/better-regulation/have-your-say/initiatives/1558-Review-of-ecodesign-requirements-for-standby-and-off-mode-electric-power-consumption_en

[4]

Annex - Ares(2022)112397

Tried my 2018 Honda, it is ready to drive in about 5 seconds from hitting the Start button.

My pair of Play 3s used for this test as they have a easily accessible switch and I can see the Status light:

From idle, opening the Sonos App, to playing an Amazon station about 7 seconds.

From switched on and Sonos App opened, to playing an Amazon Station, 93 seconds.

Enough difference I prefer the power usage to the wait.

That “Networked Standby” versus Idle is a key thing. Idle only needs enough power to run the remote control receiver and maybe a standby LED. While Networked Standby has to run the Ethernet (Sonos saves power by only supporting 100 but it does use a LED status port) run a CPU and memory to receive and act on network commands, power control hardware and maybe an LED.

It will be interesting to see how Sonos redesigns things to meet this rule.

Also noted that there has to be an option to disable the WiFi system if a network port is available. Might be one reason we users still have access to that switch?