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Topic: Hardware

Charging your iPad only sets you back $1.36 in yearly electricity costs

Summary: There are many things you can complain about when it comes to the iPad, but apparently your electricity bill shouldn't be one of them.

Sean Portnoy

By for Laptops & Desktops |

There are many things you can complain about when it comes to the iPad -- from the less-than-stellar working conditions of the supply chain Apple hires to make its tablets to the high prices the company charges for them -- but apparently your electricity bill shouldn't be one of them.

According to the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), you should be able to pay what it costs to charge your iPad annually with the coins in your change jar. The EPRI conducted lab tests that led it to conclude that a person charging his or her iPad every other day would pay $1.36 in yearly electricity costs for the privilege. Even if you're like me and need to fully charge your iPad nearly every day, it's still probably cheaper than a single trip to Starbucks.

Charging the iPad in the EPRI's scenario would require about 12kWh of electricity over the course of a year, compared to the 358kWh needed to power a plasma TV. But before you start feeling too good about the miniscule cost, you might want to consider the total effect of everyone charging their millions of iPads: The EPRI claims that if the number of iPads sold were to triple in the next two years (a not-impossible scenario), the total electricity used by all of them would require the equivalent of a pair of 250-megawatt power plants running at 50-percent utilization. The institute also points out that the latest iPad will slurp up 65-percent more electricity thanks to its Retina Display requiring a bigger, more powerful battery.

Throw in all the other tablets that aren't sold by Apple, and that's a whole lot of power necessary for a new product category. But at least your tablet isn't costing you as much in electricity as your vampiric TV set-top box.

Topics: Hardware, iPad, Laptops, Mobility, Tablets

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16 comments
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  • Lock 'em up

    First Munchkin who tells us it only costs $1.32 to charge a Surface spends a night in the box.
    Robert Hahn
    Reply Vote

    • Okay, Mr Apple fanatic, why wouldn't a comparable Surface

      cost as low a price to recharge, if the devices have similar technology inside, and similar battery requirements?

      However, consider something else...

      The Surface Pro is a miniature PC, disguised as a tablet. That means, two devices in one, which means, many people won't have to fire up a desktop or laptop PC to get productive work done on them, while also using a tablet for other "less productive" stuff. So, the Pro version could end up saving a lot more money when people might opt to keep their regular laptops and desktops shut down for a while or permanently. Do people who use tablets not also have PCs or Macs? I'd say, most of them do.

      In my scenario, the Surface Pro would end up saving a lot more on electricity than the tablet/PC-or-Mac combo.
      adornoe
      Reply Vote

      • Get in the box

        N/T
        Robert Hahn
        Reply Vote

      • Robert Hahn: Can't handle the truth, can you?

        n/t
        adornoe
        Reply Vote

  • Cost is subjective

    Charging daily in SoCal is a good bit more but still less than a Venti.
    What's more expensive is the replacement cost ofthe bloody charging cable which never seems to last a year.
    rhonin
    Reply Vote

    • Wait a minute here aren't you a through and through android fan?

      Second you can't keep a simple thing like a cable working for you? I've had my recharging cables I say cables cause I get one with every purchase of a mobile device from Apple going back to iPods and so I've got many lying around unused cause my very first cable purchased with a third gen iPod is the one I use for my iPhone 4 now and it's years old.

      Pagan jim
      James Quinn
      Reply Vote

      • Yep

        every Apple detractor seems to own at least two Apple products. That's weird!
        CowLauncher
        Reply Vote

      • +1000!!

        I was just thinking the same thing.... :-)

        Thanks...
        TW
        T-Wrench
        Reply Vote

    • What a dumb rant

      I have devices that are 10 years old and still work with the original cables. I have an iPod Mini that is 7 years old and never had to buy a cable.

      If you can't make a cable last a year, then look in the mirror. You just don't have the minimum skills required to use them.
      wackoae
      Reply 1 Vote

      • Agreed

        Still, if Apple made a better cable (e.g. 50-pin straight-through to 30-pin chipped), there's usually a good reason (e.g. preventing 3rd party knock-offs since the chip to be licensed is where the real money can be made... ) If you're a customer that wants to be eco-friendly and keep using your existing cables, well that's just too bad.
        HypnoToad72
        Reply Vote

  • charging costs and use

    If you charge up at work then it costs nothing.
    Technology across the generations best use for ipad yet (in German but you will understand) probably applies to new windows pad as well..
    http://www.ssrichardmontgomery.com/download/Ipad-bk.wmv
    ronangel
    Reply Vote

  • Does this take into account . . .

    . . . the electricity used by the transformer plugged into the wall 24x7?
    Gr8Music
    Reply Vote

    • Probably not.

      Note they're saying "every other day" and the iPad charger doesn't have the auto kickoff feature.
      Champ_Kind
      Reply Vote

  • Terrible article

    Just another example that one shouldn't let a "desktop/laptop" blogger comment on mobile devices. They are consumed with fear and hate the devices that will ultimately make their domain obsolete.

    "There are many things you can complain about when it comes to the iPad" - and then he lists only two, one being sillier than the other:

    - "less-than-stellar working conditions" - Dead link, probably because it's nonsense in the first place.
    - "the high prices the company charges for them" - Do some market research dude.

    "But before you start feeling too good about the miniscule cost, you might want to consider the total effect of everyone charging their millions of iPads: The EPRI claims that if the number of iPads sold were to triple in the next two years" - So I should feel bad because of a fictional future scenario, which will actually save an incredible amount of energy when thought through to the end, because fewer people will use real power hungry desktops and (compared to tablets) laptops?
    anigart
    Reply Vote

    • Dead, because the host of the article did not want the extra bandwidth

      to be used?

      Indeed, try hosting a site, noting bandwidth licensing costs, and then tally in how much more it will cost you to appease retina display users because of the higher density images needed...

      Also, why don't you move over there and work for Foxconn, since you think it's all nonsense? (Hint, you will quickly realize how precious little nonsense there is, and there's a reason why there are so many suicides, forced happiness parades, and other things... wow, real life really is like the sci-fi that was written decades ago, about people being surprised and thinking how anti-freedom practices are just "nonsense"... but I digress...)
      HypnoToad72
      Reply Vote

  • Wrong Cable

    The pictured cable doesn't look like an iPad charging cable. I just wanted to bring that up.
    lloydkuhnle@...
    Reply Vote
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