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mariachiel21
Avid Contributor I
March 5, 2013

Reduce idle consumption energy level (currently around 5W)

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.
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    Richard_120
    Contributor I
    December 25, 2013
    I find it hard to believe that in this day and age of energy conservation where devices are often required to have standby modes that the Sonos speakers are on all the time. For something so technology aware, so ahead of the marketplace, and so expensive, wouldn't you have thought that a standby mode was required? All my technology equipment round the house has one from the TVs to the YouView to the PlayStation.

    I'm pulling out the power on all the devices whenever they aren't in use, including the Bridge. However it can't really be that hard to implement a timed standby mode that drops the components into a listen mode where they wait for a signal from the apps or the Bridge, which waits solely for the app, to kick into life.

    Honestly this omission shocked me when I set-up my first two Sonos units the other day. In fact this, coupled with two other issues I have, are making me consider using my 28 day return period.
    tobrien
    Contributor I
    December 25, 2013
    Same concern. I see this last post was 5 months ago. Any updates or future software roadmap plans? I hope this big pain won't require us to update any hardware in future... Tim
    Frans_4
    Lyricist I
    December 25, 2013
    Why no response from SONOS on this very urgent problem or even much better why still wait for a good solution
    Marcus_11
    Lyricist III
    December 27, 2013
    To Sonos Official people here, I hope you are aware that entertainment hardware that is not in use, has to reduce their idle energy level by 2014 within the EU. If the criteria are not met the units can not be sold anymore and lose the CE certification.
    blueworld
    Avid Contributor I
    December 27, 2013
    The major point behind energy consumption of Sonos devices is not their "idle" consumption. They are not standalone device, they need to listen to the network and thus need to power the wireless antennas or, for those wise enough to avoid the wireless functionality, the ethernet cards.

    The major point it that Sonos devices force users to keep them on, because of their inability to resume previous operations. It's even recommended by Sonos customer support not to turn them off!
    It doesn't take a genius to understand that the standby feature is to be avoided by using hard buttons, not only to save power consumption, but to avoid electrical failures and fire.

    Hopefully CE laws will force Sonos to solve this issue, one way or another.
    blueworld
    Avid Contributor I
    December 27, 2013
    Well actually I found lately that the hiss comes from the ethernet port itself... as loud as if it was a 128 port professional switch! I wonder what poor components Sonos uses...
    ejules
    Trending Lyricist I
    December 29, 2013
    Additionally I believe there are features available. At least for LAN, you could consider WOL.
    If it takes 30s more to power up, you can leave the choice to the consumer in the menu. For Wireless I agree it might be a little bit more difficult and would require some hardware adjustments...
    Similarly I would really like to be able to disable wireless when the device is connected by LAN. I understand that it still broadcasts regularily wirelessly the status - which I think is unnecessary if you don't have the remote. I would like to be able to switch this off when not in use..
    Michael_277
    Lyricist I
    April 13, 2014
    Any news on this item yet?
    User185935
    Lyricist I
    April 13, 2014
    I have the same question. Just bought two speakers today and noticed the heat right away.
    Amit
    Lyricist I
    April 20, 2014
    I have reduced the idle power consumption of my play:5 to about 5 watts by turning off the WiFi link. I have found the instructions at http://bsteiner.info/articles/disabling-sonos-wifi.
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