How Much Energy Do Your Tech Gadgets Use?

Oh my goodness! You left your TV plugged in, and it has a self-turn-on feature that means it drains energy when not unplugged.

(Gasp.)

Should you feel guilty about that because you’re not being as green as possible? Or, is it truly not a huge deal after all, and you’re really making mountains out of molehills?

Well, let’s find out the truth about the energy usage of your technological devices today:

1. Smartphones

Is your smartphone green-friendly? Oh-my-gosh yes! Android-based smartphones use just one lousy kilowatt per year, which costs you 10-13 cents or so.

Oh, and your iPhone? It’s a real energy hog. It consumes nearly double the energy – or 2 kWh per year. And instead of taking a dime out of your pocket, it costs a much larger quarter.

So, yeah, if you haven’t detected the strong sarcasm already, smartphones really aren’t something to even concern yourself with (at least in terms of energy savings anyway).

2. Tablet PCs

Should you care about the energy your iPad or Microsoft Surface uses?

Nope.

They consume around $1.36 in energy yearly. That’s about 10.4 kWh.

Again, a drop in the ocean of energy!

3. Laptops

Now, these have much larger screens than any of the previous devices. So, you’re expecting the greatest energy usage of all gadgets explored thus far.

…And that expectation is correct.

They cost about $10 per year to run, which equates to 76.9 kWh.

4. What about Various Entertainment Devices?

PlayStation and Xbox One each cost $40 per year to run, which equals about 307.7 kWh. Your cable box with DVR costs about $30 per year and consumes about 230.8 kWh.

Put Those Numbers in Perspective

To understand how much energy your technological devices use, consider this data from the EIA. In 2009, the average Texas household used 4,800 kWh annually to heat or cool their home.

Now if you add up all the kWh used by your various technological devices, you get 628.8 kWh.

So with your tech devices, you can certainly feel concerned about them. However, since they consume so little energy, your time considering savings gets best spent elsewhere. And, particularly with your heating and cooling.

Check our Electric Rates for Texas