Answered

Sonos Device BTU specifications

  • 20 February 2018
  • 11 replies
  • 1825 views

Sonos, Please post the BTU and typical in-use power consumption specifications for your product !
icon

Best answer by ratty 20 February 2018, 20:18

View original

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.

11 replies

British thermal unit?! A unit of heat?

Idle power consumption is listed here.
British thermal unit?! A unit of heat?

Yes, mechanical engineers want this information in higher end homes and commercial environments to specify cooling for the equipment space.
Userlevel 7
Badge +22
British thermal unit?! A unit of heat?

Yes, mechanical engineers want this information in higher end homes and commercial environments to specify cooling for the equipment space.


Err no.

1) BTU is an old Imperial unit for heat. The equivalent SI unit is the Joule
2) BTU are rarely used anymore excepting in very niche applications
3) Engineers are interested in the Power consumption of devices and for the example you quote they could estimate the amount of power dissipated as heat by assuming efficiency of the device. Eg standby power consumption would likely be all heat.

Stuart_W BSc (Hons), CEng, MIMechE
British thermal unit?! A unit of heat?

Yes, mechanical engineers want this information in higher end homes and commercial environments to specify cooling for the equipment space.


Err no.

1) BTU is an old Imperial unit for heat. The equivalent SI unit is the Joule
2) BTU are rarely used anymore excepting in very niche applications
3) Engineers are interested in the Power consumption of devices and for the example you quote they could estimate the amount of power dissipated as heat by assuming efficiency of the device. Eg standby power consumption would likely be all heat.

Stuart_W BSc (Hons), CEng, MIMechE


1) You are correct, but that is not the point of this.
2) All the applications I work with and the reasons I request this for are "niche" applications.
3) Idle power consumption and in use power consumption are not the same. Nor do I have efficiency to properly calculate the BTU output.
The point is that BTU (or Joule) is a measure of energy, not power.

It seems like Sonos don't publish peak power (or current) requirements, other than the mandatory data in the on-product labelling. Power input typically fluctuates widely depending on volume levels. See this thread.
Userlevel 7
Badge +20
Sonos, Please post the BTU and typical in-use power consumption specifications for your product !
Which Sonos product?
Sonos, Please post the BTU and typical in-use power consumption specifications for your product !
Which Sonos product?

Connect and Connect Amp
Userlevel 7
Badge +22
I believe this has all been answered
I believe this has all been answered
Where has this been answered? I've been searching high and low for any sort of specification of BTU/hr or any other measurement of energy given off by the Connect and/or Connect:Amp as heat. It would be awesome to have even a rough idea of what they give off during "normal use" (while playing music, and maybe 1/4 and 1/2 power for Connect:Amp). Not for comparing with other products but to help with planning of ventilation for equipment racks.
Userlevel 4
A Connect is a pure computing device, so practically all of the electrical energy consumed is converted to heat. So that's a 5.6W heat source based on known idle consumption*.

The Connect:Amp drives speakers. It has been measured whilst playing at ca. 8.9W**, which is a small increment on the above; seems reasonable given the typical efficiency of solid-state electronics. That's a 2012 measurement but let's assume it won't have shifted magnitude in recent hardware versions. But let's also assume that was a quiet playback and not driving the speakers much. Now Sonos claim it has a Class-D amplifier driving up to 55W per channel. Class D amps are expected to have efficiency of 90-100%, let's assume the worst case; that's a loss to heat of 2x55W * 10% = 11W at full blast.

So the worst case scenario for cooling purposes appears to be that a Connect:Amp is potentially a ~20W heat source, or 72BTU/hr.

* https://support.sonos.com/s/article/256
** http://danonit.blogspot.com/2012/01/how-much-does-sonos-connectamp.html
A Connect is a pure computing device, so practically all of the electrical energy consumed is converted to heat. So that's a 5.6W heat source based on known idle consumption*.

The Connect:Amp drives speakers. It has been measured whilst playing at ca. 8.9W**, which is a small increment on the above; seems reasonable given the typical efficiency of solid-state electronics. That's a 2012 measurement but let's assume it won't have shifted magnitude in recent hardware versions. But let's also assume that was a quiet playback and not driving the speakers much. Now Sonos claim it has a Class-D amplifier driving up to 55W per channel. Class D amps are expected to have efficiency of 90-100%, let's assume the worst case; that's a loss to heat of 2x55W * 10% = 11W at full blast.

So the worst case scenario for cooling purposes appears to be that a Connect:Amp is potentially a ~20W heat source, or 72BTU/hr.

* https://support.sonos.com/s/article/256
** http://danonit.blogspot.com/2012/01/how-much-does-sonos-connectamp.html

Thank you for taking the time to write this. It not only answers my question, but also provides a better understanding of the components.