Using Smart Plug With Sonos Speakers

  • 12 November 2022
  • 12 replies
  • 796 views
J
Userlevel 2
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I have Sonos speakers in various rooms of the house.  Some are used often and others are not.  It seems wasteful to keep them plugged in for days/weeks at a time when they are not heavily used.

 

I am looking at plugging some into smart plugs so I can turn them on remotely when I want them and turn them off when not in use.

I plan on leaving the speaker connected to the network on all the time, since that is required.

Has anyone tried this? Are there any issues I should be concerned about?

 

Thanks,

John

12 replies

buzz

As you switch units ON and  OFF it will take a little time for the system to work out the new topology and you may be notified that the powered down units are “missing”. Operationally this may be annoying but will not be very significant.

I can’t precisely quantify it and it may not be significant for infrequent power cycles, but power ON is a very stressful event for electronics. There are surges at the instant of power ON and a temperature cycle begins. On power OFF the temperature cycle winds down. After a finite number of temperature cycles the unit fails. Deep temperature cycles are much more stressful. Some users might be tempted to power down multiple times a day as they leave a room. This is very significant. I keep my SONOS units ON always and in the winter this is factored into my heating. Other units, such as my computers, I’ll start up in the morning and power down at the end of day. There is at most one cycle per day. Typically, I get decades of use out of a piece of equipment.

K

 It seems wasteful to keep them plugged in for days/weeks at a time when they are not heavily used.

 

 

In such cases, I leave mine off. I reckon that the electricity cost saved will offset any reduction in service life caused by power cycling, but I don’t have a calculation for that! But all my units from 2011 are still working fine.

I use smart plugs for things like my room cleaning robot that is used thrice a week, to have it recharged and operate on a schedule. I do not need these for Sonos kit because their mains switches are easily accessed. If you use smart plugs, you would then have to leave them on for the weeks at a time though!

J
Userlevel 2
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Kumar wrote:

If you use smart plugs, you would then have to leave them on for the weeks at a time though!

 

True...they draw only 1 watt, though, which is less than the 4-7 w the Sonos speakers draw while idle.

@buzz, I would not be cycling power many times a day.  For speakers I use a lot, I’d probably leave them on or, perhaps. turn them off at night and on in the day.  Not sure how much impact that would have, but I appreciate your point.

106rallye
Userlevel 7
Badge +17

You state “I plan on leaving the speaker connected to the network on all the time, since that is required.” When a speaker is not on the mains, how can it be connected to the network.

buzz

Kumar wrote:

If you use smart plugs, you would then have to leave them on for the weeks at a time though!

 

True...they draw only 1 watt, though, which is less than the 4-7 w the Sonos speakers draw while idle.

And, there may be an opportunity to use a single switch for multiple speakers.

J
Userlevel 2
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@106rallye I am not sure I understand your question.  What do you mean by “when a speaker is not on the mains”?

106rallye
Userlevel 7
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Sorry, I'm not a native speaker in English. I meant “not connected to electricity” (since the smart plug cuts the power).

Airgetlam

You do fine, @106rallye !

I’ve never noticed that you weren’t a native English speaker, even though I was aware of where you live ;)

Bruce
melvimbe

I think @JackInBrooklyn was saying that he plans on leaving the speaker wired to the network (creating Sonosnet) always powered on, no smart plug for that one.  Techincally, it could be powered off as well when you aren’t using any speakers, or if you want to switch your setup to a fully wireless (using your home WiFi only) setup.  Since you do plan on using some the system on a regular basis, probably not necessary

Just my personal opinion, but I think you may find this plan to be more trouble than it’s worth.  When you do decide you want to play music  in one of these rarely used rooms, you’ll have to give the command to turn on power, wait a minute or two for Sonos to power up (while you wonder if the power actually turned on) then find that the speaker needs a firmware update or has trouble connecting to the network.  So you’ll subconsciously use the speaker even less to avoid all this.  

Just a thought that may or may not make sense for your case...sell all these speakers that you rarely use.  Get a Move or some Roams instead.  When you want to play music in these rarely used spaces, just bring the portable in with you.  Bonus, you can use it as bluetooth speaker outside your home too.

Danny
J
Userlevel 2
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Sorry, I'm not a native speaker in English. I meant “not connected to electricity” (since the smart plug cuts the power).

Got it. It might have been more clear if I’d written “I plan to leave the speaker that is wired to the network powered on all the time”.  I would not have a smart plug on that speaker, since it serves as the central node for the Sonos network.

Thanks for your replies!

J
Userlevel 2
Badge +1

I think @JackInBrooklyn was saying that he plans on leaving the speaker wired to the network (creating Sonosnet) always powered on, no smart plug for that one. 

You are correct.  That is what I meant.

Just my personal opinion, but I think you may find this plan to be more trouble than it’s worth.  When you do decide you want to play music  in one of these rarely used rooms, you’ll have to give the command to turn on power, wait a minute or two for Sonos to power up (while you wonder if the power actually turned on) then find that the speaker needs a firmware update or has trouble connecting to the network.  So you’ll subconsciously use the speaker even less to avoid all this.  

You could be right about this as well.  I know the Sonos speakers take a little while to set themselves up.

Just a thought that may or may not make sense for your case...sell all these speakers that you rarely use.  Get a Move or some Roams instead.  When you want to play music in these rarely used spaces, just bring the portable in with you.  Bonus, you can use it as bluetooth speaker outside your home too.

Not a bad idea, had I not already bought the speakers I have.

 

K

Y

You could be right about this as well.  I know the Sonos speakers take a little while to set themselves up.

 

 

Half of my six zones are not powered on all the time, and this small issue is not a deterrent to using them when I need to, I find. After all, there is nothing more to be done to get them to be set up other than turning on the power to them. One can quickly get used to the lack of instant gratification.

PS: I accept that this works for me because I am both on S1 where the next update is not going to bring any change in the user experience and therefore I am also not on the auto update train. Once in a while I run a manual update and power on all units when doing this.

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