Does anyone know how many watts a typical LNB sucks off the receiver? My "new" 612 DVR sucks 38 watts just plugged in. That's about 25% more than the 512 it replaced and I still haven't added the third LNB for HD.
LNB Power?
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I personally have not measured it, but I have seen it posted here that the typical receiver draws about 50 watts. It doesn't matter whether the receiver is on or off. It draws virtually the same power either way.
Should we assume you mean a DPP44? There is no DP44 switch and Dish Pro does not have it's own power inverter.
Bit confused, does this mean 3-LNBs use 30 watts? Therefore 10 watts per LNB. If so most of the receiver power is not internal, rather to the LNBs.
Thanks for the reply.
What did you probe? The AC line going into the receiver or the DC on the coax going to the dish?
The converter sends either 12, 16 or 18 volts to the dish DC. The LNB sends a block of frequencies back to the receiver creating a wave guide in the coax. Depending on what channel you are on determines what LNB and what block of information that gets sent to the box.
Using 10W per LNB seems like a lot for a small solid state device.
I'm presuming you could use a Kill-A-Watt meter in line with the DVR power cord & measure the power. Then disconnect the coax so that the LNBs are not drawing any current & then measure what the DVR uses. The difference should be how much the LNBs use.
I do recall using a Kill-A-Watt meter on my 722k DVR and it used something like 40-50 watts when off & not much more when on. I don't know why it has to be powered up all the time.
I'm presuming you could use a Kill-A-Watt meter in line with the DVR power cord & measure the power. Then disconnect the coax so that the LNBs are not drawing any current & then measure what the DVR uses. The difference should be how much the LNBs use.
I do recall using a Kill-A-Watt meter on my 722k DVR and it used something like 40-50 watts when off & not much more when on. I don't know why it has to be powered up all the time.
It has to be powered all the time so that every time you turn on the TV you're not staring at an acquiring signal screen for five minutes. Plus it has to be ready to record on time.
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I have an old style 1000+ dish with DPP33 (don't need 118). The difference between the receiver alone and the receiver powering the switch and dish is 18-19 watts. This quick test does not isolate LNB and switch power. My guess is the integrated LNB/switch units would be less power.
The UPS I run my satellite dish has a watt meter which is where I get the numbers. This UPS also powers a Mac Mini (running at the time of the test), Blu-Ray player ("off" at the time of the test), VCR ("off" at the time of the test) and A/V receiver ("off" at the time of the test). Hopper was "off" at the time of the test. Power with the dish was 59-60 watts. Power without the dish was 41 watts. IIRC, the last time I measured each component, the Hopper used about 40 watts with the dish connected. So the Hopper alone (without dish components) is about 20 watts.
The UPS I run my satellite dish has a watt meter which is where I get the numbers. This UPS also powers a Mac Mini (running at the time of the test), Blu-Ray player ("off" at the time of the test), VCR ("off" at the time of the test) and A/V receiver ("off" at the time of the test). Hopper was "off" at the time of the test. Power with the dish was 59-60 watts. Power without the dish was 41 watts. IIRC, the last time I measured each component, the Hopper used about 40 watts with the dish connected. So the Hopper alone (without dish components) is about 20 watts.
The above is true However the LNB is kept active also to prevent moisture build up at extreme cold temperatures. This also allows the LNB to stabilize the temperature and the local oscillator frequency by dissipating heat from the LNB circuitry . Lastly it allows continues updated to the converter box
The current in the new dish would be more since both of the following is active at all times
13v. 11.25 GHZ. Vertical. IF=950-1450 MHz
18v 11.25 GHZ Horizontal IF=950-1450 MHz
This was not true in the older technology
I live solar-electric and simply don't/can't allow a continuous 40 watt draw from any device. Therefore I have an inline switch on any and all devices that have a ghost load. I live on a daily energy budget of ~3KWH. A 40 watt DVR would represent 1/3 of that budget.
In the case of the DVR, I put up with the 5-min satellite acquisition time. Been doing that for the last dozen years. Never had a moisture problem.
