Is the ATV3 Always using power?

GoCoogs said:

Is the apple TV 3 ALWAYS supposed to be powered on even when its sleep? The reason i ask is, i run my apple TV Via my Note 3, because the LTE speeds are faster than my home network.

I've noticed every time i walk into my apartment, the Apple TV is one of the first devices to connect to my phone. My question is, if i put it to sleep, why is it still connected to my wifi even when its sleep? Should i just unplug it every time i leave? Because no matter how i turn it off, if its still plugged in, it stays connected to my wifi.

I got it for christmas, and my electricity bill shot up over 100 bucks from last month, i'm trying to narrow down what the cause was, one of the things i was thinking is because the apple TV was on 24 hours a day and connected to my Wifi.

anyone have any knowledge about this?

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its always "on". it goes into sleep or standby mode, where it basically listens for IR signals, and airplay signals. according to a quick google search it uses 1.9W when "on" and .8W when "off". assuming an electricity cost of 11 cents/kw-hr, then over a month you get .15$ when its "on" the entire month.

There's no conceivable way that an Apple TV could increase your electricity bill by $100 per month. Perhaps you’re using more heat during the winter months than you were in the fall?

warvanov said:

There's no conceivable way that an Apple TV could increase your electricity bill by $100 per month. Perhaps you’re using more heat during the winter months than you were in the fall?

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None what so ever. The circuitry couldn't handle the amount of amperage required to do so. Unless electric in your area is 200-300 times higher then average.

Quick math, .3 amps (amp rating on ATV) x 120 (volts) = 36 watts/hour. 36 w/h x 24 hours x 30 days = 2592 watts/month / 1000 = 2.592 kilowatts a month

So about 2.6 kW monthly running at it's limit none stop 24/7. So that's worse case scenario.

I think my electric per kilowatt is 12 cents give or take. So 31 cents give or take for it to be running at full tilt.

Generally high electric bill in the winter is from the heating. If you have a heat pump with electric back up heat and the heat pump itself is malfunctioning then your bills can go through the roof. To put it in comparison AppleTV is 6watt (+/-) its not uncommon for a heat pump to have 15000watts (15kW) of electric heat back up.

If your heat is in any way connected to electric, the record cold would explain the sudden rise in your bill.

You're not supposed to leave the blanket on when you are in the bed, it's supposed to be used to warm the bed before you get in. Check the instruction leaflet or online.

If you got it for christmas it's the 2013 version. Anandtech compaired the ATV3 (2012) with the ATV3 (2013) and this are his power measures:
A1427 (2012) to A1469 (2013)
Idle - Min Power (Ethernet Connected) 1.41W to 0.70W
Photo Stream Scrolling (CPU Test) 1.84W to 1.07W
Skyfall 1080p iTunes Trailer (Ethernet) 1.58W to 0.81W
Skyfall 1080p iTunes Trailer (5GHz WiFi) 1.55W to 0.85W
Netflix 29.97 Short (Ethernet) 1.62W to 0.85W