power usage specifics?

[Guest]

I'm hoping to gain some insight into exactly how starlink distributes it's power, especially in regards to the heating element part of the dish. After using this thing for a month+, I'm starting to notice that when the temps fall below the low 30s, the wattage starts ramping up considerably. My dish is mounted on a pole on on one of my terraces, about 70' from the house, with absolutely no obstructions at all. Normally, the average running wattage, after finding the sats (as I pull the plug on it at the end of every night) will level out to about 42 watts. Now that the temps here are staying not much, if anything at all, above freezing, the wattage is more like 160-180. There's nothing on the dish, no ice, water drops, zilch. This kinda tells me there's a thermostat relay in the dish, which will call for some current so long as the thermostat reads a certain temp threshold or below. Accordingly, the power brick gets fairly hot. And honestly, if my assessment is correct, and there's no way to disable or trick said thermostat, this is a monumentally foolish, and quite energy wasteful design. On days that never rise above 30°F (ie; 3½ months out of the year for me), Starlink will use as much energy as 2-3 refrigerators...JUST to have internet. Which is rather absurd. Can someone confirm that this is the way it works? And if there is indeed a way to disable it? For the record, and before anyone says that a constant ~160+ watt draw is trivial, I (like many people with starlink) live 100% off the grid. And a constant draw like that IS a big deal, and by my reckoning, a very needless one. When it's that cold here (and we will regularly see temps in the teens to neg F) it's generally dry cold most of the time, and ice and snow can easily and safely be mitigated manually, for those who are able to set it up that way.

 

[Guest]

Well, I can tell at this point that starlink is not really well thought out for the offgrid crowd (a major demographic for which it was designed in the first place, ironically enough). Unless I have a defective unit, today is perfectly clear out, dish absolutely clear and clean, temps are 50°f, and for the last 6 hours (since I turned it on this morning), it has been running pretty much straight out at 180 watts, going as high as 190... so... maxing it's power bricks rating out all day. signal is great, sats are locked in. Something that uses this much juice just to get internet is simply not tenable in the vast majority of offgrid systems, so this things going back in the box and shipped right back to space x by the end of the week unless they can give me a reason why it's doing this and make improvements on it.

 

[9thousandfeet]

I don't yet have a dishy, so I have no first hand data, but your numbers of 180+ watts seem quite high in comparison to reports I've been reading elsewhere on the 'net.Those readings are higher than those you reported in your previous post too (about 42 watts when temps are not cold you said), so I would have to assume that there's a reason for the increase in power consumption even though your ambient temps are not cold enough to kick the "snow melt" function into gear. Perhaps a recent firmware update has made a difference?That said, the starlink system is not nearly as frugal with power as most off-grid people would prefer, and I don't think it's accurate to say that the off-grid crowd is, or ever was, driving the design process. The main target has always been on-grid rural internet users for whom real high speed internet access without horrendously restrictive data caps and ungainly ping times is just unavailable.You've had your Starlink for more than a month according to your first post, so you are beyond the "return for your money back" boundary. Basically you now own all the hardware. Just FYI, there has been a recent change in policy at Starlink however, which allows transfer of your starlink hardware to someone else (you can give it away, or sell it, SL plays no part in that part of the process) and if the person receiving your equipment is in an open cell, Starlink will transfer the account from you to them. If you can find someone in an open cell with capacity who is willing to purchase your dishy etc, you may well be able to recoup your initial investment.