Battery usage. Slow down updates? SSL the reason?

The companion app is great but recently (this year) I am seeing and increased battery usage.

I’ve disabled all the sensors i don’t need so only have 4 currently. Yet I keep seeing the sensor update on status bar which I never saw before.

The only change I have done is add SSL using duckdns. Would this make the difference?

Sounds like you probably have a live view picture entity card, there is a known issue where the camera continues to stream in the background. You will need to stop using those cards or move them to a place where they will not be kept open. Check your data usage I bet it is high. The sensor update will always show up whenever an update is being checked for. That is not new.