Idle Consumption?

[BrendanK]

Random question to pose here to see if anyone can explain or has had a similar experience.
On my EG4 6000ex unit I had been pulling quite a bit of wattage from just idle consumption. I know that unit has a pretty high idle consumption but it seemed excessive even to knowing that.
One thing I also noticed via the monitoring app was that my load-side fluctuated (right now it's just powering a Starlink mesh node and a simplisafe base station). During the day it would drop to 10-20W but overnight it would climb up to 150-200W and sometimes a little more with the same exact loads.
Then I updated the firmware, switched out of user-defined mode back to eg4 protocol and installed a neutral/ground bond screw in my service panel simultaneously and everything changed. Now the load-side never really goes above 12W.
Since I changed those three things on the unit all at once I'm not sure which one of them could've improved and evened out the consumption. I also haven't measured if the idle consumption has changed but it definitely seems to be 'sipping' power rather than gulping it.
Anyone have any ideas?

 

[BrendanK]

So I am still seeing a bump in consumption from 12W to 90W. All that is plugged in is the simplisafe base station, the starlink mesh node, and a couple of those plug in pest repeller devices.
I read online that Starlink uses more power when it is cloudy but I can't find much if any info on the mesh node's power consumption. A jump of nearly 80 watts seems excessive for just the wifi on a cloudy day but maybe that's just me being naive.

 

[Lt.Dan]

Get a smart outlet or something and measure actual consumption and compare with the inverters readings

 

[BrendanK]

Aside from getting a smart outlet, has anyone else experienced this type of power fluctuation with Starlink? Obviously the SolarPower app doesn't display idle consumption but I'm seeing fluctuations on the AC output side anyway.
I know this sounds silly, but do the starlink mesh nodes have to be warm to consume less energy? Because I see the fluctuations at night when the space cools down. No one is living down there currently so we don't heat the space at night. I have been taking advantage of the sunny days and using the mini splits during the day to keep the space warm. Just trying to look at all possibilities.

 

[Adam De Lay]

Aside from getting a smart outlet, has anyone else experienced this type of power fluctuation with Starlink? Obviously the SolarPower app doesn't display idle consumption but I'm seeing fluctuations on the AC output side anyway.
I know this sounds silly, but do the starlink mesh nodes have to be warm to consume less energy? Because I see the fluctuations at night when the space cools down. No one is living down there currently so we don't heat the space at night. I have been taking advantage of the sunny days and using the mini splits during the day to keep the space warm. Just trying to look at all possibilities.

Don't the starlink dishes have built in warmers to keep snow from accumulating on them? Is it possible that's what's happening at night?

 

[grizzzman]

When Starlink switches satellites, weather, updates, atmospheric changes, Etc will all affect power output. If you graph it it will see how "in flux" it is.

 

[grizzzman]

Don't the starlink dishes have built in warmers to keep snow from accumulating on them? Is it possible that's what's happening at night?

There is no warmers per say, It bumps up the power to the array.

 

[BrendanK]

Don't the starlink dishes have built in warmers to keep snow from accumulating on them? Is it possible that's what's happening at night?

They do, but the dish is on the other house. The studio space where the 6000EX is only has a mesh node. The only things plugged in there are a Simplisafe base station and the Starlink mesh node. Nothing else is turned on. Seeing a jump from 12W to 110W seems so excessive and I am at a loss for what could be causing it.

 

[rodrick]

Yes the Starlink does have a warming feature which you can turn off and use it manually as needed

 

[Lt.Dan]

200w is kind of crazy. Are you sure thats the typical current draw from a Starlink unit? I wonder if something is wrong.

 

[BrendanK]

200w is kind of crazy. Are you sure thats the typical current draw from a Starlink unit? I wonder if something is wrong.

It says on their site that the routers use 'on average' between 15 and 75W. Not sure if this speaks to the mesh nodes as well, tho. Plus, I'm not positive that it's starlink, but it's one of only two things plugged in. Next time I'm down there I'm going to try flipping all other breakers off and just running that circuit. I'm also going to try removing the mesh node and plugging it into my little goal zero generator to see if that makes a difference. It will also tell me what the Starlink node is consuming in real time.
100W isn't a whole lot, but to have it be unexplained is concerning.
The pattern seems to be that the usage is higher at night too, which is strange.

 

[Cronix]

My starlink draws about 90watts continuous and about 130-160 watts when it's below 40 degrees, which usually happens at night, and the starlink heater kicks on. I have months of graphs with home assistant including the starlink integration, which reports when the heater kicks on along with outdoor temperature data.

 

[BrendanK]

My starlink draws about 90watts continuous and about 130-160 watts when it's below 40 degrees, which usually happens at night, and the starlink heater kicks on. I have months of graphs with home assistant including the starlink integration, which reports when the heater kicks on along with outdoor temperature data.

This is very interesting info, thanks! But, I'm assuming you're talking about the dish, router and everything. Mine is just the mesh node. I wonder if that still applies...

 

[Cronix]

This is very interesting info, thanks! But, I'm assuming you're talking about the dish, router and everything. Mine is just the mesh node. I wonder if that still applies...

Correct, dish and router hooked up to single circuit. Router consumption should not change power draw unless you're turning wifi on/off or something like that, and it wouldn't be nearly as much of a swing as you're seeing.

Sorry, coffee hasn't kicked in. I will remove foot from mouth now and insert more coffee.

 

[gotbeans]

200w is kind of crazy. Are you sure thats the typical current draw from a Starlink unit? I wonder if something is wrong.

yea lol
at boot it'll do 175 watts almost always for a minute to establish connection probably

(unrelated) the old hughes net ones pulled like 150 watt AC and converted it to 40-60wattDC, insanely inefficient.

Random question to pose here to see if anyone can explain or has had a similar experience.
On my EG4 6000ex unit I had been pulling quite a bit of wattage from just idle consumption. I know that unit has a pretty high idle consumption but it seemed excessive even to knowing that.
One thing I also noticed via the monitoring app was that my load-side fluctuated (right now it's just powering a Starlink mesh node and a simplisafe base station). During the day it would drop to 10-20W but overnight it would climb up to 150-200W and sometimes a little more with the same exact loads.
Then I updated the firmware, switched out of user-defined mode back to eg4 protocol and installed a neutral/ground bond screw in my service panel simultaneously and everything changed. Now the load-side never really goes above 12W.
Since I changed those three things on the unit all at once I'm not sure which one of them could've improved and evened out the consumption. I also haven't measured if the idle consumption has changed but it definitely seems to be 'sipping' power rather than gulping it.
Anyone have any ideas?

For what it's worth, my 3000 watt unit (the yellow eg4 inverter ones) pulls a lot of wattage too and the amount is very random.

 

[grizzzman]

This is very interesting info, thanks! But, I'm assuming you're talking about the dish, router and everything. Mine is just the mesh node. I wonder if that still applies...

Are you using the starlink router as mesh set up? How many routers? (looks like I need more coffee to!)

 

[BrendanK]

Are you using the starlink router as mesh set up? How many routers? (looks like I need more coffee to!)

I have the router and one mesh node in the main house and another mesh node in the studio space.

 

[grizzzman]

I have the router and one mesh node in the main house and another mesh node in the studio space.

Is the glass front hot on the mesh nodes?

 

[BrendanK]

Is the glass front hot on the mesh nodes?

I haven't checked that. Next time I'm down there I will.

I just checked the app and consumption is down to 9W from 110 an hour ago.
It's literally just a nighttime thing. So weird

 

[eXodus]

The V2 Starlink router/mesh node is very inefficient, I mean like stupid bad. Needs like 30w without the dish plugged in.

I replaced it with a DC- Power supply POE

https://boondocker.io/products/dishy-rv-power-supply Starlink draws now 30-60W