Avid Contributor I

Reduce idle consumption energy level (currently around 5W)

121 replies
35142 views

Sonos devices on average consume about 5 watts each if idle. Having 5 sonos devices around this means 25 watts on average idle consumption. Over a year this is about (25x24hx365) 219 kwh. In Germany where 1 kwh is about 0,30 Euro Cent this then means about 70 Euro (about 100$) just to maintain an idle system. This is just too much and could easily be reduced. Looking at the environmental aspect this gets even more critical: There are around 2.5 million Sonos devices around. This adds up to 110,000,000 kwh or 110 million kwh.

Energy usage

This topic has been closed for further comments. You can use the search bar to find a similar topic, or create a new one by clicking Create Topic at the top of the page.

Show previous replies

U

upstatemike

I still don't understand how this power saving thing is supposed to work in a large installation where idle players are still routing traffic for players that are being used. Am I supposed to guess the optimal route for a given player within the wireless mesh and then go from room to room turning on the intervening players that the signal needs to travel through before I can get music in the room I want to play?Also losing player state and playlist information is not acceptable under any circumstances. It is bad enough when it happens due to an unintentional power failure and it will never be an acceptable compromise to achieving other design goals.

Local music library with carefully constructed playlists - no shuffling!, Integration with Homeseer Automation, No touch screen devices, No streaming services, No Apple products ever

D

dmoodie

Lyricist I

I love my sonos system but I love my planet more. Something has to be done on this via firmware.

The idle power draw has definitely kept me from adding more units to my system.

M

Marcel Diekhöner

Lyricist I

Please Sonos build something like the mentioned schedule. It would be so nice to shut off the system for example from 12pm to 6am so it would save the half of the standby power consumption costs.

Would be so great if we hear anything from you.

mgutt

Enthusiast II

For people who wire all of their players you can actually reduce the 'low power' (or 'idle') energy consumption by disabling the internal Wi-Fi hardware. For example, rather than 5W on idle it'll be around 3 to 2W instead, just by disabling the Wi-Fi hardware. It may not be much but when looked at in regards to the overall scheme of things it can add up to quite a big bit of power saving.
I've done this myself and used equipment to measure the power draw with and without this hardware enabled.

While this is not officially supported by SONOS it is not something that will damage or hinder the capabilities of your players or system, SONOS just prefer the Wi-Fi aways be on in the off chance that you may decide to go wireless with one or more players.

You can give it a shot: http://vowe.net/archives/013907.html

@User873439
Most people want a scheduler to disable the complete Sonos at night. kmjy's proposal is only for advanced people that do not want to wait for a solution. But of course it works only if you do not disturb the Sonos.NET. In my case a set of Play:5 is connected through LAN beside the bridge.It does not make sense to have the Play:5 WLAN enabled as the other players are placed in the other direction of my house.

T

tomek11

Lyricist I

This issue makes me think about Sonos alternatives. The idea of Sonos is great, but the standby power consumption is a no-go for me, so I havent bought any Sonos device yet. My favorite setup will be a CONNECT and a PLAY:5.

@Sonos: Please implement a solution for the standby power consumption or let the system power off easily and convince me to choose your products ;)

Scrivener

Trending Lyricist I

I wanted to buy two Sonos Play3s for two bedrooms - but no way am I going to add any more wifi to the six components I already have. Eight units at 5 watts each for a year and spraying us with wifi all the time - even while we sleep - it's just not on.

Scrivener

M

martin.grotzke

Lyricist I

+1 for standby / power off