TiVo Energy Usage (How Much Does It Cost To Run A TiVo)?
Update 01/26/06 @ 8:13 PM: According to the Series2 install guide, a Series 2 TiVo uses 40 watts. Using this information, it costs ~ $14.38 per year to run a TiVo.
((40 watts * 24 hrs per day * 365 days per year) / 1000 ) * .041 kWh rate = ~$14.38 per year
This might sound a like a lot of money but it really isn’t when you compare it to the cost of running a PC 24 hours a day (~$43.13 per year not including the cost of a monitor).
Along with being a super geek, I’m also a bit of a stickler when it comes to energy usage. If I had to classify myself, I would say that I am a cheap-geek :). I enjoy technology but I’m always looking to save a buck especially when it comes to energy usage. That being said, I came across this article on news.com. The article talks about how we as consumers are using more and more electricity for our techno gadgets.
Being the cheap geek that I am, I thought I would analyze how much it costs to run a TiVo 365 days a year. I found this formula online however, I don’t know how many watts a TiVo consumes. Anybody have an idea?




January 26th, 2006 at 10:08 am |
My 80-Hour Humax TiVo’s specs say 40W, which seems really low, but that’s what it says! http://www.humaxusa.com/products_T800_80.html If I correctly calculated through their formula, that’s right at $50/year. Way less than my desktop computer would cost, which is on 24/7 as well.
January 26th, 2006 at 10:08 am |
[...] I’m such a tight-wad when it comes to certain things. One of my pet peeves is walking through the house and seeing lights and TV’s on in rooms that nobody is using. I recently stumbled on this site, thanks to the TiVoBlog folks, that gives you a formula for figuring out how much it costs to run the various items in your house. Obviously their concern was for their TiVo. [...]
January 26th, 2006 at 1:40 pm |
The back-panel rating is very conserative. I’d probably guess that the current draw is 0.1-0.2 amps, more when the system is recording. You’d need to use a time-weighted average, so’d it probably be 0.125 amps, or about 15 watts.
At 8c/kWh, it’s about $10-11 per year.
January 27th, 2006 at 1:22 pm |
[...] How much does your Tivo Cost to Run? I found this on the TiVo blog today and found it kind of interesting that it costs $14.38 a year to have my TiVo running all the time. Dosn’t seem like to bad of a deal to me. If you want to get all the info head on over to TiVoBlog.com.Loom001 Published Friday, January 27, 2006 5:19 PM by loom001 [...]
February 3rd, 2006 at 7:53 pm |
Here’s an email that I received from Brian. I thought I would share it with everybody:
June 14th, 2007 at 2:55 pm |
4 cents a KWH? Where do you live? I’m moving there.