The routers are continuously connected to power and consuming electricity.
If you have an old Wi-Fi router, you should find out it’s energy usage as it may be more economic to buy a newer and more efficient model.
On this page you will find out:
> How many watts does a wifi router use
> Wifi router electricity cost calculator
> Electricity measurement units: Watt, Kilowatt or Kilowatt hour
> How to lower the electricity bill
> What is energy conservation and how does it benefit you and the environment
Alternatively, you may want to fast forward to the wifi router electricity cost calculator.
On the picture below you can see a Wi-Fi router that was purchased 5 years ago.
It consumes 31,25 Watts per hour, while the more modern routers consume around 10 Watts per hour.
Let’s run some calculations to find out the electricity usage and the electricity cost of our 31,25 Watts Wi-Fi router.
12,5 Volts (V) x 2,5 Amps (A) = an electricity usage of 31,25 Watts hour (Wh)
31,25 Wh / 1000 = an electricity usage of 0,03125 Kilowatts hour (kWh)
0,03125 kWh x 24 hours = an electricity usage of 0,75 Kilowatts hour per day
We are paying to to our electricity provider 0,217 euro for every Kilowatt hour that we consume. So, this is how much it is costing us on electricity to run our router:
0,75 kWh per day x 0,217 euro = 0,162 euro per day
0,162 euro per day x 365 days per year = 59,4 euro per year
For a Wi-Fi router, this is a considerable electricity cost so it would really be worth for us to change to a newer and more efficient Wi-Fi router…
31,25 watts router = 59,4 euro per year in electricity costs
10 watts router = 19 euro per year in electricity costs
If on your router’s specifications label only the Voltage (V) and Amperage (A) are displayed, this calculator can be used to calculate the Power (P) consumption.
The Power (P) consumption it is needed to make further calculations.
Once you know the power consumption in Watts (W) and how much you are paying to your electricity provider for every kilowatt hour (kWh) you consume, then you can use this calculator to estimate the electricity usage and the electricity cost.
For example:
> A 40 Watts router, connected to power the whole year and with an electricity cost of 0,217 euro per kWh, it would add around 76 euro to our electricity bill.
> A 15 Watts router, connected to power the whole year and with an electricity cost of 0,217 euro per kWh, it would add around 28,5 euro to our electricity bill.
Still, if you want to know the exact electricity usage of a Wi-Fi router, your best option is to use a plug in power meter to measure the electricity consumption.
Clicking on the image below it will redirect you to the Amazon page where you can have a look to the specifications of the power meter we use for our measurements.
All of our house appliances and devices like the washing machine, the dishwasher, the TV or the printer are plugged to a wall socket.
So, with a power consumption meter we can determine how much electricity our appliances or devices are using and, more importantly, we can measure the electricity usage over a period of time.
If you want to find out how you can use a plug in power meter to measure your electricity usage and electricity cost, have a look to this YouTube video.
A few other examples from our ‘Electricity usage calculators‘ page that may be of your interest:
Not everybody it is familiar with terms like Watts, Kilowatts or Kilowatt hours so if you would like to learn more about them, have a look to this YouTube video that we have prepared about this topic.
Or you can have a look to this electricity measurement units calculators to get a better understanding of:
> What is a Watt (W) and how to transform Watts into Kilowatts
> What is a Kilowatt (kW) and how to transform Kilowatts into Kilowatts hour
> What is a Kilowatt hour (kWh) and how to transform Kilowatts hours to other units
> What are Power (P), Voltage (V) and Current (I)
Well, by now you should have came to the conclusion that the most effective method to save electricity it is to buy an efficient wi-fi router.
Of course, if you are planning to go for a long vacation you should power off your router and that would save you some electricity and money.
It may not be a huge saving but every little counts. If each one of use do switch off our routers two or three weeks per year, collectively it may add to a significant amount of electricity being saved.
You know how much we would be collectively saving? Have a look to the next section.
Energy conservation can be defined as the decision and the act of using less energy
Energy conservation both benefit you and the environment
The act of saving and conserving electricity does benefit you because you will be paying less on your energy bills.
And it also does benefit the environment because conserving electricity prevents any unnecessary waste of natural resources.
Now, at individual level it may not look worth to try to save a few watts here or there.
Still, every little counts and if hundreds or thousands of us do save a little every time, it will make an important contribution towards conserving our natural resources.
For example, if 9000 households would manage to save as little as 10 Watts per day (0,01 kWh) that would add to 32850 Kilowatt hour (kWh) saved per year.
9000 households x 0,01 kWh per day x 365 days per year
=
32,850 kWh saved per year
That is a considerable amount of electricity, but let’s add additional perspectives for clarity:
> Assuming an average cost of 0,18 euro (or dollars, or pounds, or any other currency) per kWh, we would collectively be saving nearly 6000 euro per year.
> To produce 32,850 kWh of electricity it is necessary to use around 17 metric tons of coal or 56 barrels of residual fuel oil.
In any case it is clear that small energy savings do really count when looking into the bigger picture.
If you are looking for ideas to save electricity at home, have a look to this YouTube video were we show some useful tips to reduce the electricity usage at home and decrease the electricity bill.
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For more useful energy and water saving information and advice, have a look to our blog.
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