Ever wondered how much charging your smartphone costs? Below we will see how much energy is needed to charge a smartphone for a whole year.
The correct way to do it is, of course, to measure the energy that a device consumes over a year. However, since no one is going to go through such a process, we will perform the test with smaller measurements and use mathematics.
Thus we will measure the energy needed to charge a battery from 0 percent to 100 percent, as most people do. We will charge the smartphone during the night.
This particular method is the way most people charge their device.
Energy consumption can be measured with various products such as the WattsUp PRO meter.
My test was performed on an iPhone 6 Plus, which has the largest battery currently offered by Apple.
Let's look at the numbers:
On average, during an overnight charge, the iPhone consumed 19.2 Wh.
According to data published by PPC (family tariffs PDF) the average cost per kWh in Greece is 0.107 euros.
One (1) kWh equals 1.000 Wh.
Thus with 19,2 Wh per day, multiplying by 365 days, we have 7 kWh, which cost 0,749 euros per year.
Naturally the result will change according to the decisions of the troika – government. No one can guarantee what the electricity price will be for an entire year, just as no one can say how VAT will be next month….
