@brownk wrote:I was just asking the same question b/c our electric usage has DOUBLED since we installed FIOS in April. It went from 1200 KWH per month to over 2300 (and we are not even running heat or AC this time of year in our house). I just called and talked to the FIOS Fiber Solutions Center and was told it is not possible for the FIOS install to have impacted the electricity usage b/c they do not touch the electricity at all during installation.
Maybe the eletric meter just "crapped out" (I hope) about the same time FIOS was installed? It spins like a top at night when the rest of the family is asleep and no lights, TV, etc are on. I will call PPL on Monday morning.
I think the possibility that the FiOS installation caused this is really very, very small. But to verify that none of the Verizon equipment is involved at all, simply disconnect all of the FiOS equipment from electrical power when TV, internet, and phone are not needed, and take a look at the meter. If it is still running like crazy, you have a serious issue that should be investigated by a qualified electrician (or of course maybe it really is the meter, but an electrician can figure that out quickly).
The only FiOS equipment in your house that would draw any power at all are the ONT via the BBU, each STB, and the router. Just unplug all of them and check the meter. If it is not ok at that point, non-FiOS problem. If it is ok, plug in the ONT and check again, keep plugging in one device at a time in and check, I guess eventually the meter will go crazy and you will know which device is causing the problem.
Since the FiOS electrical usage issue has been raised by several people, I will try to put my Kill-a-Watt meter on each of the devices today or tomorrow and get some measurements for each device. Maybe that will help everyone understand the elctrical usage for current Verizon FiOS components.
Edit: If I can find my Kill-a-Watt, I have two, one for (at?) each house, now to find the one hopefully here.... 
__________________________________
Justin
Verizon FiOS TV, Internet, and phone
QIP7232, IMG 1.8, Build 02.54
Keller, TX 76248
@brownk wrote:Thanks Justin for the post above.
I did not think that FIOS (installed properly) could cause such a drastic leap in KWH usage or else no one would be using FIOS if it caused a doubling in their electric bill costs. I am just wondering if somehow the technician screwed something up when he installed FIOS and it is "leaking" electricity somehow due to a faulty connection? The Verizon customer support team told me that this is not possible b/c the techs do not interact with the electric connection at all when they install FIOS. I am trying to figure out a way to temporary disconnect the Verizon "circuit box" (that would disconnect the box itself and the internet, phone & cable I assume) and then check the meter to see what impact, if any, this has? However, the box does not have an off switch so I will keep looking at that option to figure it out.
I am calling our electric company on Monday and plan on calling our electrician after that depending on what the electric company says. It is just that this huge SPIKE in usage started exactly when FIOS was installed so my gut just tells me it has to be related somehow to something that was done during that process. I have read that FIOS is likely to cause a small increase in your electric bill (maybe $20-30 per year), but what I am experiencing is way beyond that scope so something is definitely wrong. I will be sure to post the results when I find out the cause so it may help others in the future.
From your posts it appears you are in a single family house, right? The Battery Backup Unit (BBU) provides the power to the Optical Network Terminal (ONT), which is the large box, usually in the basement or garage, that converts between light on the fiber and electrical for the TV, internet, and phone. The BBU is just plugged into a grounded outlet, at least that is the normal way it is done, so all you need to do is pull that plug out of the wall socket and that will eliminate all electrical usage for the ONT. And pull the plug for each of your STBs, if you have any. And finally, pull the plug for the router. That's it, nothing with FiOS will be drawing any power at all, period.
Now if you are in a multi-family environment like a condo or apartment house, the setup is probably different, and it may be much more difficult to isolate the FiOS stuff completely.
Now I suppose, if there was any drilling needed to go through a floor or wall or the ceiling, or if the fiber is buried in your yard, it is I suppose conceivable that some electrical circuit was hit and damaged, and could be leaking electricity. Seems remote to me, but?????
Anyway, I found my Kill-a-Watt, I am measuring the power consumption right now for one of my HD STBs. One of the problems is that the power usage is so low that it takes quite a bit of time to even register. Just a preliminary result for that is $17.34/year whether turned on or off, based on a cost of $0.11/kwh, which may be high or low depending on where you live. On to the DVR a little later, and once I get all of the devices measured I will post a chart that hopefully will give some reasonably good estimates.
Edit: Looking at the links provided by Hubrisnxs, there is good info there that should give a good idea of the expected electrical usage. However, those posts do seem to be 2 or 3 years old, Verizon has introduced new equipment since then, so it is possible that the energy usage has changed, and if so hopefully for the better. I will continue my meansurements to see what mine looks like.
Edit #2: I did a quick search on the various current Motorola STBs and the Actiontec router, and found the following information on energy consumption in the spec sheets:
Motorola QIP7100 P2: 20W (my preliminary measurement on this model is approx. 16W)
Motorola QIP7232: 25W
Actiontec router: 16W
I have not found any specs for the various ONT models yet (the Tellabs website is down for maintenance ), but my guess is that the ONT would draw 30 W or so, maybe less, maybe a little more. So if you add them all together, depending on how many of the various STBs you have, the total power usage is probably in the neighborhood of 100 - 150W. So somewhere around what a 100W bulb draws, 24/7. That is certainly quantifiable and costs something, but is not even remotely in the realm of doubling an electric bill for a house.
I think I am going to give up doing actual measurements, I don't think what I could come up with will really help here.
__________________________________
Justin
Verizon FiOS TV, Internet, and phone
QIP7232, IMG 1.8, Build 02.54
Keller, TX 76248
@brownk wrote:OK, update.......I unplugged the ONT, router, DVR, and 3 STBs and there was only a fraction of a slow down of our electric meter. So, it is not the FIOS devices themselves causing the large electricity usage spike in our single unit home. So, unless my mother-in-law (she lives in our in-laws quarters) is growing marijuana in the attic again, it is either: (1) the meter itself (2) some FIOS mishap external of the actual FIOS devices, or (3) other electrical issue. It is probably 1 or 3, but it is just very strange that this all happened at the same time we converted from Comcast to FIOS. I will post the cause and the cure once the electric company comes out to check the meter and the electrician comes out to check the overall electrical circuit system.
First of all, thanks for coming back and following up, not all folks do that, and all of us here are then left up in the air about what happened, etc.
Now, based on your FiOS equipment list above, my guess is that the total FiOS installation should be consuming no more than about 150W, 24/7. So that should work out to about 1314kwh in a year, or at my estimated rate of $0.11/kwh (yours may be very different) somewhere around $145/year. Not trivial, but then when you compare it to what a cable TV system would use (cable modem, maybe a separate router, same number of DVRs and STBs), the only real difference would probably be the extra usage by the ONT and BBU, which is a pretty small percentage (maybe 30W out of 150W) of the $145.
If you want to experiment a little bit more before the power company and/or an electrician comes out, you can always go to your circuit breaker panel and switch off a single breaker at a time and see what happens. At some point you would expect that turning off a breaker would result in a major reduction in the usage, and then you would know which circuit is the problem. If it doesn't identify the source, then turn off the master breaker, that should shut off the entire house, and if the meter is still running you at least know it is not something inside the house.
Strange, hope you can get it fixed soon! I for one will be very interested to hear what the final resolution is, so be sure to tell us. And yeah, I am sure it is the mother-in-law
__________________________________
Justin
Verizon FiOS TV, Internet, and phone
QIP7232, IMG 1.8, Build 02.54
Keller, TX 76248