Vratislav Holub Have you ever wondered how much it actually costs you to charge your iPhone, MacBook or AirPods annually? This is exactly what we will look at together now. This is because the iPhone and MacBook are devices that we plug into the socket practically every day. But the answer to the mentioned question is not so simple. There are several models available, and it also depends a lot on how you actually use the device and what kind of charger you use. So let's summarize it with a flight around the world.
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Amaya Toman Annual charging of the iPhone
So let's use a model situation to describe how such a calculation actually takes place. For this, of course, we will take last year's iPhone 13 Pro, i.e. the current flagship from Apple, which boasts a battery with a capacity of 3095 mAh. If we use a 20W fast charging adapter for charging, we are able to charge it from 0 to 50% in about 30 minutes. As you all know, faster charging works up to about 80%, while it then slows down to the classic 5W. The iPhone charges up to 80% in about 50 minutes, while the remaining 20% takes 35 minutes. In total, charging will take us 85 minutes, or an hour and 25 minutes.
iPhone 13 (pro)
Thanks to this, we have practically all the data available and it is enough to look at the conversion to kWh per year, while the average price per kWh of electricity in 2021 was about 5,81 CZK. According to this calculation, it follows that the annual charging of the iPhone 13 Pro will require 7,145 kWh of electricity, which will then cost approximately CZK 41,5.
Of course, the price differs from model to model, but you won't find any revolutionary differences here. On the contrary, you can save if you charge your iPhone every other day. But again, these are not amounts worth considering.
Annual charging of the MacBook
In the case of MacBooks, the calculation is practically the same, but again we have several different models available. Let's therefore shine a light on two of them. The first will be the MacBook Air with the M1 chip, which was introduced to the world in 2020. This model uses a 30W adapter and, according to available information, you can fully charge it in 2 hours and 44 minutes. If we recalculate it again, we get the information that this Mac will require 29,93 kWh of electricity per year, which at the given prices is almost 173,9 CZK per year. So we should have a so-called basic apple laptop, but what about the opposite model, i.e. the 16″ MacBook Pro, for example?
In this case, the calculation is a bit more complicated. Apple was inspired by its phones and introduced fast charging in the latest professional laptops. Thanks to this, it is possible to charge the device to 50% in just 30 minutes, while recharging the remaining 50% subsequently takes about 2 hours. Of course, in this case it depends on whether you use the laptop and in what way. In addition, the 16″ MacBook Pro uses a 140W charging adapter. All in all, with this, this laptop will require 127,75 kWh per year, which then works out to about 742,2 CZK per year.
Annual charging of AirPods
Finally, let's take a look at the Apple AirPods. In this case, it strongly depends on how often you use the headphones, which logically depends on the frequency of their charging. For this reason, we will now include an imaginary undemanding user who only charges the charging case once a week. The aforementioned charging cases of Apple headphones can then be fully charged in about an hour, but again it depends on which adapter you use for these purposes. Nowadays, the 1W/18W charger is most often used, but thanks to the Lightning connector, nothing prevents you from using a traditional 20W adapter with a USB-A connector.
Apple AirPods
If you were to use only a 20W adapter, you would consume 1,04 kWh per year, and charging your AirPods would therefore cost you CZK 6,04. Theoretically, however, you can save in cases where you reach for the aforementioned 5W adapter. In that case, the electricity consumption will be significantly lower, i.e. 0,26 kWh, which after conversion amounts to just over 1,5 CZK.
How the calculation works
In conclusion, let's mention how the calculation itself actually takes place. Fortunately, the whole thing is quite simple and it is practically enough to set the correct values and we have the result. The bottom line is that we know input power adapter in Watts (W), which you only need to multiply afterwards number of hours, when the given product is connected to the electrical network. The result is consumption in so-called Wh, which we convert to kWh after dividing by thousands. The last step is simply to multiply the consumption in kWh by the price of electricity per unit, i.e. in this case times CZK 5,81. The basic calculation looks like this:
power consumption (W) * number of hours when the product is connected to the network (hours) = consumption (Wh)
What follows is simply dividing by thousands to convert to kWh and multiplying by the price of electricity for the aforementioned unit. In the case of a MacBook Air with an M1, the calculation would look like this:
30 (power in W) * 2,7333 * 365 (daily charging – number of hours per day times number of days per year) = 29929,635 Wh /1000= 29,93 kWh
All in all, we would pay an average of CZK 29,93 in 2021 for a consumption of 173,9 kWh.
I'm selling iPhone xs and I don't have airpods for running costs.
I will resell the fixation at 1,4 kc per Kwh
I'm not entirely sure that when charging airpods there will be a difference in consumption when using 20w adapters and 5w, because if I'm not mistaken, the source consumes as much W as it allows to charge the device. And so it is with all devices. The power of the adapters must be sufficient to charge the macbook and at the same time to operate it, so it is simply stupid to say that it takes 140w only when charging. So for me the article would be interesting, but the data is not correct
Surely there will be no difference. The author apparently didn't even finish elementary school, because that's what they teach there.
Like, no offense, but is this article serious, or is it just some New Year's Eve prank? How on earth can the author think that charging with a 20W adapter will cost you several times more than charging with a 5W adapter? For God's sake, this is what children are taught in elementary school, it's Ohm's Law. The fact that you have a 20W adapter does not mean that it takes 20W from the mains, but only that it is capable of delivering this power when needed!
This is pure amateur language. Not just the article, but that the editor-in-chief would let such garbage out at all.
And I'm not even talking about the fact that from this data:
"If we use a 20W fast charging adapter for charging, we are able to charge it from 0 to 50% in about 30 minutes. As you all know, faster charging works up to about 80%, while it then slows down to the classic 5W. The iPhone charges up to 80% in about 50 minutes, while the remaining 20% takes 35 minutes. In total, it will take us 85 minutes to charge, or an hour and 25 minutes.”
calculating how much energy is consumed is complete nonsense. That iPhone has a 3.7 V battery and 3095 mAH, i.e. approx. 11,5 Wh. So if you were to charge this iPhone every day from 0-100, you would use approx. 4 Wh per year (not including losses), which is 197 kWh, which is quite different from your 4,2 kWh.
So much for your ramblings here.
Unfortunately, someone taught him the triad and did not further develop his knowledge (mainly electrical engineering).
So this hurts to read. Don't write articles about what you don't understand. And if you want to write interesting articles like this, first study the material (in this case, you only need to repeat it from elementary school).
I don't charge my Macbook because I always have it plugged in. And if it eats 140W, I'll probably return it to them :).
I'm kidding. However, most of the time the battery consumes about 20W, so these calculations based on how long we charge it are completely wrong.
Interesting idea, but I'd better calculate it on a calculator. :)
Author! You'd better delete it, you're writing nonsense. I hope you are not studying a technical field... The fact that the adapter has a power of 140w does not mean that it charges a battery with a power of 140w! So calculate 1/2 much easier to look on the net for the average consumption of the device and count on, for example, 80% charging efficiency.
I have a wattmeter, I plug it into the socket and whatever I want to measure, I set the price of the electricity, wait until it is charged, and then calculate how much it will cost
And with that ending, you put the crown on it! What on earth did you do at school??
The 700 kc for a year's recharge is really thick 🤣😭 I remembered Gympl, the guy with the bridge over the womb.
I just overwrote myself in the decimal point. 🍀
Well, this is a massacre 😂😂😂 I don't know why it keeps offering me articles from here when I disable it after every seemingly clever article like this, but it's actually quite funny... Or it doesn't matter that I'm completely stupid, especially if I look smart...
These numbers should be taken as a guide, not literally. A section on calculation was added at the end of the article. If we have someone from the industry among our readers, please get in touch by e-mail vrata.holub@textfactory.cz and we can figure something out. 😊