Disabling firewire to save energy

[christiand]

I just build a new HTPC. My main focus was to cutt back on the power the htpc uses. I have 2 firedtv external tuners and saw that each one uses around 10 watt.
In holland every watt costs about 2 euro a year when its in constant use, so each tuner will cost me around 20 euro each.

Is there anyway to disable them by the tvserver when it noticed that a tuner is in idle mode. This should cut back alot.

[funkstar]

Here is a good test: Put your PC into sleep or suspend mode and see how the power consumption of those tuners changes.

I would guess that because they use external power bricks, the consumption will not change very much if at all.

Depending on what voltage the tuners are looking for, you could wire up connectors from your PCs PSU to power them as opposed to using the supplied power bricks. This will at least make them more efficient, as you would be getting wasted electricity being converted to heat from the power bricks.

[christiand]

Both tuners are connected by firewire, so when the pc goes into standby they are off and dont consume power. What I would like is to have them turned off when they arent in use when the machine is up and running

[Marcusb]

I don't use firewire much, but USB ports have an option in Windows that is "Allow system to shut down these devices to conserve power".
Does firewire do the same?

Also, how do you know that they use this much? I know TV Tuners use a fair bit of power when they are actually being used, but the power drops a lot when they are idle. Could the way you measure be the issue?

[christiand]

Originally Posted by Marcusb

I don't use firewire much, but USB ports have an option in Windows that is "Allow system to shut down these devices to conserve power".
Does firewire do the same?

Also, how do you know that they use this much? I know TV Tuners use a fair bit of power when they are actually being used, but the power drops a lot when they are idle. Could the way you measure be the issue?

I use a kill-a-watt appliance to check the power usage. Its an appliance that plugs in the power slot in the wall and then you put the computer power cord into the appliance. I first checked the power use without the tuners connected and then again after the tuners were connected.