One SL idle power consumption, hoping for a low power mode

  • 13 January 2021
  • 5 replies
  • 575 views

I plugged my One SL into a measuring device and see it seat at 3.9 watts when idle, which is a bit more than this support document advertises (3.4 watts). I have a pair so that’s about 8 watts, running 24/7 that makes about 6 kwh/month. It seems kind of wasteful to me for devices just sitting there doing nothing. Apple’s HomePod has a low power mode that make it run at 1.76 watts when idle. Surely Sonos can do better.

I honestly wouldn’t mind if my device takes a bit longer to start when I get back to it. It’s not doing anything most of the time so saving power would seem to make the most sense. Hopefully Sonos can deliver something in a device update, even if it is an opt-in low power mode, I would gladly enable it.


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5 replies

I am all in favour of lower power consumption, but it does go into a low power mode automatically shortly after play finishes - it just isn’t as low as you would like.  It isn’t doing nothing when ‘idle’.  It is designed to be part of a multiroom system and stays in touch with other speakers to ensure optimal configuration, and may be participating in SonosNet.

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Happy new year John B!

@John B I see, this is also why I mentioned this could be an opt-in option. I wouldn’t mind these features to be disabled to allow entering a low-power mode, even if that means slower availability the next time I get back to it. The rationale is that I’m not using the device the vast majority of the time so low-power mode would be make more sense than fast availability for me.

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I plugged my One SL into a measuring device and see it seat at 3.9 watts when idle, which is a bit more than this support document advertises (3.4 watts). I have a pair so that’s about 8 watts, running 24/7 that makes about 6 kwh/month. It seems kind of wasteful to me for devices just sitting there doing nothing. Apple’s HomePod has a low power mode that make it run at 1.76 watts when idle. Surely Sonos can do better.

I honestly wouldn’t mind if my device takes a bit longer to start when I get back to it. It’s not doing anything most of the time so saving power would seem to make the most sense. Hopefully Sonos can deliver something in a device update, even if it is an opt-in low power mode, I would gladly enable it.

 

I have been writing to Sonos for several years now and suggested this feature. 

If you have Sonos in many rooms and a cinema setup, then this is a big expense to have your Sonos system, just stranding on idel standby.

But there is a very big difference in which country you live, in in terms of what you pay for electricity, but I happen to live in a country with very high taxes on electricity, so I know there are people who hold back from buying Sonos due to the high stand-by consumption.

And then we havent talked about CO2!

Just as an example, Beam alone is using 6.1, watts, this is a completely ridiculously high stand-by consumption.

 

Yeah, I have bought Sonos for the first time and I do like the product but I don't think I will be buying more devices than I already have now.

For an idle device I expect no more than 2 watts of power usage.