Cost of iPad Battery Charging Just Over 1 Dollar per Year

A study conducted by the Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI) revealed that consumers who fully charge their iPad tablet every other day are paying only $1.36 / €1  per year for the electricity needed to keep the tablet computer alive.

Over the course of one year, any iPad model consumes less than 12 kWh of electricity, if you were to perform a full charge every other day.

Of course, knowing how long the iPad’s battery lasts, we’d say it consumes far less than this estimate.

To provide some degree of comparison, the EPRI looked at how much power is drawn by a plasma 42” television each year. The result: 358 kWh.

EPRI estimates that the average energy used by all 63 million iPads in the market is roughly 590 gigawatt hours (GWh).

“In a scenario where the number of iPads tripled over the next two years, the energy required would be nearly equivalent to two 250-megawatt (MW) power plants operating at a 50 percent utilization rate,” says EPRI. “A quadrupling of sales in two years would require energy generated by three 250-MW power plants.”

The EPRI analysis also showed that, on average, an iPhone 3G consumes 2.2 kWh of electricity each year. This translates into a power cost of $0.25 / €0.19 cents per year.

Mark McGranaghan, vice president of Power Delivery and Utilization at EPRI, commented: “As information technologies continue to change rapidly we see important implications for energy consumption.”

McGranaghan added that, “These results raise important questions about how the shifting reliance from desktop to laptop to mobile devices will change energy use and electricity requirements for the information age. At less than a penny per charge these findings bring new meaning to the adage, ‘A penny for your thoughts.’”

The VP also took note of the changes in battery technology and how this will affect energy requirements in the future:

“Our measurements indicate that new iPads will consume about 65 percent more electricity per year. What remains to be seen is how better batteries, better features and changing preferences will affect overall energy consumption by consumers as a whole,” he said.

Via: Cost of iPad Battery Charging Just Over 1 Dollar per Year