How much electricity does a relay satellite use?

[CMH]

Might be jumping ahead since this is 1.2-related stuff, but how much power does it actually consume to act as a relay just for control purposes?

It seems like even the lowest powered satellites would consume A LOT of power (to the tune of 50+/sec).

Is this just the figure for transmitting science data or must we keep it powered for it to act as a relay?

[Snark]

29 minutes ago, CMH said:

Might be jumping ahead since this is 1.2-related stuff

Well, not by that much, given that their officially announced release date is tomorrow. 

30 minutes ago, CMH said:

how much power does it actually consume to act as a relay just for control purposes?

It seems like even the lowest powered satellites would consume A LOT of power (to the tune of 50+/sec).

Is this just the figure for transmitting science data or must we keep it powered for it to act as a relay?

It takes basically no power.  Bear in mind that when it's acting as a relay, it's running on rails (unless you happen to have your currently-piloted ship parked right next to it, inside the physics bubble), which means that it doesn't actually use up electricity while it's running.

Furthermore, transmitting science does suck up a lot of power, yes, but only from the ship that's actually doing the transmitting-- relays in between it and Kerbin don't pay any "electricity tax" there.

So, basically, you've got nothing to worry about.

[CMH]

Great. That settles it, Kerbin's gonna be so filled with relay satellites no Kerbal could take a sh.... I mean science experiment, without being seen!

Edited October 10, 2016 by CMH