Originally Posted By: mlord
I feel that the WRT54G series are excellent, power-efficient routers. With DD-WRT or Tomato firmware (on capable units) one can save an extra watt by having the wifi automatically switch itself off overnight. In your case, with a shared connection, that's probably not worthwhile feasible


I'm not sure it's worth turning it off for a watt; there are likely easier kills (possibly not for you Mark, given your setup is pretty optimized).

I'm still very frustrated by gear - and this includes the WRT54's that I've owned - that use a transformer vs a DCDC for the AC supply. Even aside from the efficiency issues, you're shipping a huge lump of iron around. One netgear gbit switch I got several years ago in the UK came with TWO honking bricks, one with a UK plug and one with an EU plug - you were just meant to toss one half-kilo lump away upon opening the package. That really annoyed me....

I'm at about 10kWh/day for a (small) family of four with the associated washing/drying. We really ought to get a washing line up given the weather is very conducive to drying clothes outdoors in california smile

"Dark power" of the house at night is <100W, most of which is the fridge/freezer; I mapped out all the systems when I moved in but still have some unaccounted-for drains. Stuff that's on in that total includes a time capsule, docsis3.0 modem, airport extreme extender with at&t microcell plugged into it, home alarm with cell signalling (2 transformers, all sensors are wireless/battery), combination boiler, hardwired smoke detectors, TED5000 power monitor, skype cordless phone, laptops/phones on charge (though fully charged, so this is <1W each), microwave, oven, baby monitor (both ends), and irrigation timer.

This list is probably too long, but over half of that is just the fridge which we got with the house and is probably not viable to replace if you're doing it just to save energy, given how much energy making a new fridge would take...