It costs just $1.36 to charge an iPad for a year

[supertonic]

http://news.yahoo.com/costs-just-1-36-charge-ipad-212452585--finance.html

NEW YORK (AP) — That coffee you're drinking while gazing at your iPad? It cost more than all the electricity needed to run those games, emails, videos and news stories for a year.

The annual cost to charge an iPad is just $1.36, according to the Electric Power Research Institute, a non-profit research and development group funded by electric utilities.

By comparison, a 60-watt compact fluorescent bulb costs $1.61, a desktop PC adds up to $28.21 and a refrigerator runs you $65.72.

The group, known as EPRI, studied the power consumption of Apple Inc.'s iPad to determine the effect that the newly-popular devices might have on the nation's electricity use.

The answer: not much.

If the number of iPads triples from the current 67 million, they would need the electricity from one small power plant operating at full strength.

But if people are using iPads instead of televisions to play video games, or ditching their desktop computers for iPads, the shift to tablets could mean lower overall power consumption. A desktop computer uses 20 times more power than an iPad.

Baskar Vairmohan, the EPRI researcher who conducted the iPad test, said the group is now studying usage to understand whether the explosion of tablets is adding to power consumption, or reducing it.

Residential power demand is on track to fall for the third straight year, according to the government. A weak economy is keeping people in smaller houses and shacked up with others. At the same time, efficiency programs are pushing more efficient light bulbs, air conditioners and other devices into homes. Refrigerators use a quarter of the power they used a generation ago, according to EPRI.

For the iPad test, Vairmohan measured the amount of power used to charge up an iPad with a drained battery. He assumed that users would charge up every other day. Over a year, the latest version of the iPad consumed 11.86 kilowatt-hours of electricity. (Older versions consume somewhat less power.)

The juice would cost $1.36 at the U.S. average residential price of 11.49 cents per kilowatt-hour.

But there's an even cheaper way to go than the iPad. EPRI calculated the cost of power needed to fuel an iPhone 4 for year: just 38 cents.

 

[Medic311]

not sure why this is worthy of a post (no offense). it's such a small device power consumption wise, so it's not much of a surprise.

if you want a scare, go see how much electricity your cable box uses ... (hint: it uses more than your refrigerator)

 

[OSMac]

http://news.yahoo.com/costs-just-1-36-charge-ipad-212452585--finance.html

Thanks , interesting thought it would have been much more.

 

[BFizzzle]

not sure why this is worthy of a post (no offense). it's such a small device power consumption wise, so it's not much of a surprise.

if you want a scare, go see how much electricity your cable box uses ... (hint: it uses more than your refrigerator)

cable is over priced ontop of that.


bottom line, get netflix and hulu. Ditch your cable.

 

[ericdubya]

It's a $1.36 a year to charge at home, and $3 for 30 minutes at the airport.

 

[BFizzzle]

It's a $1.36 a year to charge at home, and $3 for 30 minutes at the airport.

that is great

 

[thekev]

cable is over priced ontop of that.


bottom line, get netflix and hulu. Ditch your cable.

I'm about to do that myself. I just need to set up something to stream it.

Anyway from the standpoint of electrical consumption during use, if this offsets the use of other more power hungry devices, then that is good.

 

[Redjericho]

not sure why this is worthy of a post (no offense). it's such a small device power consumption wise, so it's not much of a surprise.

if you want a scare, go see how much electricity your cable box uses ... (hint: it uses more than your refrigerator)

Not sure why this is worthy of a post.

I found it interesting, which generation iPad is this article targeting? The 3 with its beefed up battery? I guess either way, it's still quite a bit cheaper than I thought.

 

[mrsir2009]

It's a $1.36 a year to charge at home, and $3 for 30 minutes at the airport.


-snip-

That's a good idea!

 

[slu]

not sure why this is worthy of a post (no offense). it's such a small device power consumption wise, so it's not much of a surprise.

if you want a scare, go see how much electricity your cable box uses ... (hint: it uses more than your refrigerator)

I thought this was post worthy. I found it interesting anyway.

And your post just gave me another reason to be glad I don't have cable!

 

[Ipadfever]

It's a $1.36 a year to charge at home, and $3 for 30 minutes at the airport.


Image

It's just like gas, gouged to our last pennies!

 

[Medic311]

Not sure why this is worthy of a post.

I found it interesting, which generation iPad is this article targeting? The 3 with its beefed up battery? I guess either way, it's still quite a bit cheaper than I thought.

you found it interesting to know that the iPad uses little electricity each year?

you must have a really boring life, gosh

----------

cable is over priced ontop of that.


bottom line, get netflix and hulu. Ditch your cable.

oh i ditched cable long ago. i get DTV channels for ABC/NBC/CBS, then used shared accounts for netflix, hulu+, etc

my digital entertainment cost is ~$4 / mo

 

[btbrossard]

It's a $1.36 a year to charge at home, and $3 for 30 minutes at the airport.

So once you paid to charge your device at this fine looking station, do you just stand around holding it for 30 minutes while it charges?

I'd pay to use power outlets at an airport, but only if at a chair or desk type area.

 

[Fruit Cake]

Lol it cost a whole lot more then $1.36 in Australia thanks to our wonderful carbon tax. Electricity prices going up 20% July 1 thanks to our government.

 

[qCzar]

oh i ditched cable long ago. i get DTV channels for ABC/NBC/CBS, then used shared accounts for netflix, hulu+, etc

my digital entertainment cost is ~$4 / mo

We're not discussing monthly prices, but the electricity to run it over a year. Your digital entertainment cost may be $4 a month but the electricity to run it may be less per year. It's not just a cable box that uses a lot of electricity. It's Satellite boxes too, these days our TV boxes keep two channels (even four and six!) open and continually recording so you can swap between the two, rewind. They have to connect to a network and sync the TV schedules, get those ads at the bottom of the TV Guide and probably a bit more stuff. However, if you bought a digital antenna from a retail store, you're not using all that power a Cable/Satellite Box would).

It's pretty useless information but those who are frugal (people who are rich and middle class can be frugal, as those who are poor usually are) on their spending may find this useful. I'd be interested to know how much power other devices use, such as game systems and room fans/heaters use in a year.

 

[Roy G Biv]

Power question

I leave my iPad w/ 6ft extension cable plugged in to my iPad dock 24/7 for easy accessibility. Is it sucking the same amount of power regardless of whether there's anything charging, or is there like a sleep mode?

I suppose it's costing significantly more than $1.36 to have it plugged in all the time. I also use it to charge other devices by switching out the cables.

 

[ericdubya]

So once you paid to charge your device at this fine looking station, do you just stand around holding it for 30 minutes while it charges?

I'd pay to use power outlets at an airport, but only if at a chair or desk type area.

I guess, just camp out. I've never used them or saw them being used. Though I've seen them in many airports.

 

[Medic311]

We're not discussing monthly prices, but the electricity to run it over a year.

unfortunately you jumped into things in the middle so you missed what i was saying. i quoted a guy who said cable is a rip off and i agreed and said what my alternative set up is and what my end result monthly cost is. it had nothing to do with the $1.36 / yr in electricity that the iPad uses.

what started the conversation with him was that i said there really is no point in this entire thread as what did people honestly expect from an iPad? i said what would be more of a shocker (in a bad way) was if someone posted how a cable box uses more electricity than a refrigerator. then it went off from there.

no worries though, that's the problem with forums. people jump into the middle of things and we can't all be expected to read pages worth of posts leading up to it

 

[qCzar]

unfortunately you jumped into things in the middle so you missed what i was saying.

Oops, you're right. To be honest on my end, I read all the posts (as we're in the first page or two) but didn't pay much mind to the usernames attached to posts

I'll follow the quote chain next time!

 

[Medic311]

Oops, you're right. To be honest on my end, I read all the posts (as we're in the first page or two) but didn't pay much mind to the usernames attached to posts

I'll follow the quote chain next time!

no worries dude