How Much Energy Does Your Smartphone Use?

In today’s digital world, we use our devices for just about everything. From making grocery lists to communication by text or phone and getting directions, our phones meet a huge range of needs in our everyday life – from communication to entertainment. Very few of us can make it through an entire day without nearly depleting our device’s power. If not, many of us worry about actually running a battery down to its critical stage and being stranded (sometimes literally) if it shuts down. For that reason, it seems like we’re always looking for a place to plug in and recharge.

But did you ever wonder how much energy your smartphone uses? We have the answer, based on cell phone usage statistics. As the saying goes, the answer might surprise you.

iPhone Power Usages vs. Other Cell Phone Power Consumption

The world is divided into two groups of people: Those who use Apple products and those who don’t. Do you prefer Macs vs. PC? iPhone vs. Android or Windows? There are usually very strong opinions from both camps on the benefits of using each operating system and device. Many people who are iPhone devotees feel that their devices are far superior. Does this hold any truth when it comes to an iPhone’s power consumption?

Sorry, iPhone fans.

The truth is that all smartphones use about the same amount of energy. However, the good news is that amount is negligible: about 1 kilowatt hour per year. That’s equivalent to the amount of power it takes to light a 100-watt light bulb for about five minutes. One kilowatt hour costs about 12 cents worth of electricity. When this usage is put in context with the rest of the digital economy, your tablet uses about ten times that much. However, this energy use still amounts to only around a dollar of energy per year. As far as your laptop is concerned, it might use closer to 100 times that much, but it’s still less than $10 a year of energy use.

Now, with respect to how many watts does a phone charger use, your cell phone charger uses about 20 kilowatt hours of energy. However, that is only if it’s plugged in. If you kept it plugged in around the clock, it would use about 175 kilowatt hours over the course of a year. This is the equivalent of about 20 dollars’ worth of energy. Of course, you don’t need to keep your charger plugged in all the time.

Cell Phone Power Consumption vs. Refrigerators

Have you heard about how your cell phone uses enough energy to power two refrigerators? Don’t sweat it. The truth is that this “fact” is mostly nonsense. This news bite was derived from cell phone usage statistics about how much energy it takes to send data to and to draw data from the cloud. Your specific cell phone isn’t responsible for all that energy, though. Instead, it’s spread out over the millions and millions of cell phones that use data every day and shouldn’t fit into your personal calculations.

Feel free to use your smartphone without worrying about your carbon footprint. Just make sure to turn the lights off when you leave the room.

More Info at The Whiz Cells

If you found this blog post about cell phone charger power consumption and phone charger watts per hour interesting, you’ll find our other posts just as informative. Visit The Whiz Cells blog often for interesting facts, tech advice and pro tips to get the most out of your electronic devices.

Of course, if your time with these electronic devices is nearing an end, we’re here to help with that, too. We offer top dollar for your used smartphones and tablets. We make it easy for you to get paid for those unused phones and tablets that are currently sitting in your junk drawer or collecting dust. Check out how easy selling your device online can be! Learn more about The Whiz Cells and get answers to your most frequent questions on our FAQ page. We even purchase phones that are broken or have bad IMEI/ESNs.