Another hidden $5/month DVR cost
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These are all very good points. I'm a thrify bastard and hate wasting money (thermostat is set 63-64 in the winter and 80+ in the summer), but I also have lots of electronic gadgets...3 HD DVRs, 4 HDTVs, 4 PS3s, 9 computers and, like most of us, all kinds of other gadgets too. While I can place many of these devices in stand-by, the DVRs continue to burn through a lot of fuel when not recording. The DVR is certainly one device that should be engineered in an "energy friendly" way.
All points well taken....No its not going to break the bank to run your VIP DVR but IF they could make it greener then they should.
I wish a KW/h was that cheap here.
PPL is .104 Per KW/H.
.94 is the cheapest in our area, if you choose a different supplyer.
OK OK, if you're going to nit-pick you might as well complain about how much energy your TV, refrigerator, range, microwave, washer, dryer, a/c, computers, phone chargers, and lights cost you to run. Hell, lets argue our entire electric bill. Seriously, this should not be something to complain about. I'm sure you waste more money on other things in you house that you pay absolutely no attention to. Those don't seem to bother you do they?
In your long list only the refrigerator is likely to be in use 24x7 by default. The rest is voluntary. The Dish receivers need to be on 24x7 too. I realize that things that really never turn off like TVs, microwaves, etc., account for some too, but most go down to a tiny number of watts in the off state. The Dish is a 60 watt lightbulb that never turns off. Energystar TVs are required to use 1watt or less when in the off state (essentially just enough to turn on via remote).
My electric bill goes from $75 - 600/month depending on the AC more than anything. The $75/month is the baseline for everything in my house besides the AC, and Dish accounts for about 20% of that.
Actually this is a very good point. People DO pay a lot of attention to the appliances and gadgets that consume electricity when "not in use". We unplug all cell phone/battery chargers, laptops are only plugged in to charge the battery, desktops and peripherals are turned off if not in use, the VCR we only use on occasion is only plugged in when needed. Even the coffee pot, (has a clock), and keeps the water ready 24 /7 is unplugged unless we are brewing coffee. We didn't replace the instant hot water dispenser in the kitchen, when the boiler burnt through, because it was always running and we didn't use it often. We make eevry effort to keep the deep freezer full, so it runs less, as well as the freezer compartment of the fridge. We too keep our thermostats at 68 during the day and 60 at night, we only have window AC, but that means we are only cooling the rooms we actually use not the entire house. We have changed as many light bulbs to CFL's ( I know they are only green until they need to be thrown away, but LED lights are wicked expensive). We don't turn on the out side lights at night unless they need to be on. Now there are things we could do but don't, the TV's are instant on, the only way to save there is to unplug them from the wall. Supposedly they won't loose theirr settings if you do this, and I know they don't short term i.e.brief power outage, moving from one room to the next etc, but I don't know about several hours or even days, not sure if I trust them.
So to find out that I am potentially throwing $5.00 a month away because my 722 is not really off when I turn it off is a real kick in the pants. Of course neither is the 322 although I'm sure it doesn't consume as much power in standby.
So is the op whining and complaining? NO! Because if you are making an effort to conserve resources and reduce what you pay out for electricity it is a shock to realize you could be saving $60.00 a year or more if our dish DVR's were designed to go into a true standby mode and only wake up if required to by either the a DVR timer or the request to watch TV.
If you think about the money you save by doing this, reducing errands (reducing the amount of gas you purchase), turning things off or unplugging them when not in use it can be significant and could be several hundred dollars a year, just depends on your lifestyle.
Let put it another way. I work for a small Public School District. The town has their own Light Department so rates are cheap (compared to National Grid) to begin with, plus the school does get a special rate. We instituted an energy management program 18 months ago, after expenses we have saved well over $350,000.00 in both electricity and natural gas expense. Most of what was done was changing folks habits, i.e. shutting down computers and peripherals nightly. Getting ride of all the "dorm size" refrigerators in class rooms, and replacing them with standard size energy star appliances in the teacher work room. We reduced hall way lighting (still with in OSHA standards), and all interior lights are off at night (the police prefer this) and a big reduction in external lighting too. There is a lot more but I think folks get the idea.
Ross
So to find out that I am potentially throwing $5.00 a month away because my 722 is not really off when I turn it off is a real kick in the pants. Of course neither is the 322 although I'm sure it doesn't consume as much power in standby.
So is the op whining and complaining? NO! Because if you are making an effort to conserve resources and reduce what you pay out for electricity it is a shock to realize you could be saving $60.00 a year or more if our dish DVR's were designed to go into a true standby mode and only wake up if required to by either the a DVR timer or the request to watch TV.
If you think about the money you save by doing this, reducing errands (reducing the amount of gas you purchase), turning things off or unplugging them when not in use it can be significant and could be several hundred dollars a year, just depends on your lifestyle.
Let put it another way. I work for a small Public School District. The town has their own Light Department so rates are cheap (compared to National Grid) to begin with, plus the school does get a special rate. We instituted an energy management program 18 months ago, after expenses we have saved well over $350,000.00 in both electricity and natural gas expense. Most of what was done was changing folks habits, i.e. shutting down computers and peripherals nightly. Getting ride of all the "dorm size" refrigerators in class rooms, and replacing them with standard size energy star appliances in the teacher work room. We reduced hall way lighting (still with in OSHA standards), and all interior lights are off at night (the police prefer this) and a big reduction in external lighting too. There is a lot more but I think folks get the idea.
Ross
There is no problem with trying to save money. I think it is a great idea to try and save energy and money. The only thing that bothers me is the complaining people do about what things cost. Theses are not needed things. If you want HD DVR satellite then expect to pay for it. If electronics cost too much for you to run then don't buy them.
The only complaints I can understand are when people are forced to pay too much for things that are needed in everyday life, not luxuries.
The only complaints I can understand are when people are forced to pay too much for things that are needed in everyday life, not luxuries.
I think we all know that Dish equipment is not off when the power button is pressed, this is evidenced by the screen saver. However it was quite a shock to me to find out that a DVR is really not in standby but is using just about as much energy "On" as "Off". There is no reason for the HD to be constantly spinning if I'm not watching TV or recording, and I'm pretty sure the technology is available that would allow the box to actually go to sleep and wake up to record or if remote access was initiated. Even my 322 goes to a screen saver whne "off" I wonder how much power it is using
ross
Good point. Anyone who has a kill-a-watt should post the power draw with the receiver on and "off."
FiOS TV To Test 'Greener' Motorola Set-Tops
On par with this discussion, Verizon will be testing Motorola set-top boxes that use as much as 30% power. No sense if burning through money if you don't need to. As much as we loved our 622s, they certainly put off a lot of heat. Oh, and Multichannel News article confirmed that Verizon's older QIP DVR has a power dissipation rating of 35 watts, which coincides with the article the OP posted. Verizons new DVRs will consume 25 and 30 watts respectively.
OK, the new Tivo Premier uses 25 watts...Verizon's new DVRs use 25-30 watts...do how many watts does the brand spanking new 922 use?
On par with this discussion, Verizon will be testing Motorola set-top boxes that use as much as 30% power. No sense if burning through money if you don't need to. As much as we loved our 622s, they certainly put off a lot of heat. Oh, and Multichannel News article confirmed that Verizon's older QIP DVR has a power dissipation rating of 35 watts, which coincides with the article the OP posted. Verizons new DVRs will consume 25 and 30 watts respectively.
OK, the new Tivo Premier uses 25 watts...Verizon's new DVRs use 25-30 watts...do how many watts does the brand spanking new 922 use?
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extending the HDD's life
One major reason that the HDD stays running all the time is to extend it's life. The hardest thing on a HDD is the spin up and spin down. the more times you repeat this cycle the quicker it wears out the HDD.
One major reason that the HDD stays running all the time is to extend it's life. The hardest thing on a HDD is the spin up and spin down. the more times you repeat this cycle the quicker it wears out the HDD.
I sold my 501, but the last time I had it in my bedroom, it was spinning up and down at least 6 times/hr. Many of us around here were up in arms about Dish changing the firmware deliberately to kill the hdd.
The fact that all the VIP receivers reboot every night does not help power usage. Reducing the number of reboots would definitely lower the electricity usage.
Does anyone know why they have to reboot nightly for "guide data updates"? The only thing I can think of is their code is so bad that they need to recover from memory leaks and thus reboot nightly. There should be no reason at all to require a reboot for guide data updates. An occasional reboot after a software update would make sense but not nightly.
Dish VIP DVRs are nothing more than servers running Linux. You would be insane to reboot a Linux server daily.
Does anyone know why they have to reboot nightly for "guide data updates"? The only thing I can think of is their code is so bad that they need to recover from memory leaks and thus reboot nightly. There should be no reason at all to require a reboot for guide data updates. An occasional reboot after a software update would make sense but not nightly.
Dish VIP DVRs are nothing more than servers running Linux. You would be insane to reboot a Linux server daily.
I'm not sure of the answer, but always assumed it would cut down on a number of helpdesk calls and it's probably good to get a daily whosh of fresh-air run through they units because they run so hot. My TivoHD never reboots, but I'll reboot it every months or two just to be safe.
very little
Number of reboots would only reduce the use of electric by a small amount. Pretty sure the nightly reboot is a combination of things. update, load of guide, & download of the Dish online. It also does some house keeping since we have no way of doing that ourselves E* does it ( cleaning up temp events, recycle bin, & a linux check disk).
Number of reboots would only reduce the use of electric by a small amount. Pretty sure the nightly reboot is a combination of things. update, load of guide, & download of the Dish online. It also does some house keeping since we have no way of doing that ourselves E* does it ( cleaning up temp events, recycle bin, & a linux check disk).
It comes from the 921 days. The 921s were so buggy that they needed a nightly reboot or it really messed up. They put that in, and it has been in there ever since.
The code base has improved a lot. They could probably get away with it not rebooting every night. The nightly reboot is one reason I moved it out of my bedroom. The fan kicks into high for a bit and it would wake me up.
I bet it is still rebooting because it does no harm, and probably could help.
You can "dodge" the nightly reboot by adjusting your timer Menu+8+4 every day or 1.5 days. Just before it would reboot, you move it earlier. However, after several days your guide will be bad, the recorder will become unstable, and you may miss some recordings. Sorry, I don't recommend doing it for more than say 3 days.
You might want the bedroom reboot sometime in the afternoon to sleep well at night. If the guide is enough out of date, it may be reloaded anyway if you are away/asleep when it is detected. This is very likely when you access the latest times in the guide or do a search, maybe. Even with normal reboots, the recorder will occasionally freeze up, possibly from memory leaks.
My annoyance is that with recordings scheduled or even being viewed live or recorded, it will reboot.
-Ken
You might want the bedroom reboot sometime in the afternoon to sleep well at night. If the guide is enough out of date, it may be reloaded anyway if you are away/asleep when it is detected. This is very likely when you access the latest times in the guide or do a search, maybe. Even with normal reboots, the recorder will occasionally freeze up, possibly from memory leaks.
My annoyance is that with recordings scheduled or even being viewed live or recorded, it will reboot.
-Ken
If I'm watching live when the reboot is scheduled it asks if that ok or not. Yours doesn't do that?
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