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Router power consumption
savetilibleed
Posts: 1,363 Forumite
in Techie Stuff
From the convenience POV I keep my ASDL router on all the time, also it doesn't have to establish a fresh connection, though occasionaly I do that intentionally to get a better speed.
From the money saving POV, I'm not sure how much power the router draws from the mains. There is no wattage on the router itself, the only clue I have is the mains adaptor says 140mA. If it draws that much current it equates to about 28Watts. I guess over time that would mount up.
Anyone know how to calculate actual consumption of a router (mine is a Thompson Speedtouch 780WL) so I can look at likely cost of keeping it on 24/7?
Thanks
From the money saving POV, I'm not sure how much power the router draws from the mains. There is no wattage on the router itself, the only clue I have is the mains adaptor says 140mA. If it draws that much current it equates to about 28Watts. I guess over time that would mount up.
Anyone know how to calculate actual consumption of a router (mine is a Thompson Speedtouch 780WL) so I can look at likely cost of keeping it on 24/7?
Thanks
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Comments
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Literally pennies a week. A typical kWh is about 11 pence. So if it was drawing 28 watts, your router would be costing you about £2 a month. Is that 140mA for the output or the input though? If it's the output, the input will be way lower than that and remember that's a maximum, not constant.
Use this handy tool:
http://www.ukpower.co.uk/running-costs-elec.asp0 -
You only want to multiply 140mA by the output voltage say 9v, = 1.26watts. At 28Watts the unit would go into meltdown.
Power (Watts) = Voltage (V) X current (I)0 -
Thanks Conor,
140mA is the input at 230V. The output is quoted as 18V at 1A.
We are on Economy 7 on EDF in a former Seeboard area.
Band A - the first part of daytime units is at 21.26p/unit, Band B is 13.03p/unit, I never understood this business about there being this unit split for daytime. The 7 hours of nighttime units is 5.1p/unit. Seems rather low from memory but I got these from a table online. I'd have to dig out a bill to find out for sure.
So assuming these are right and current, using the calculator (thanks alot), the router costs for nightime cost is 34p/month, averaging the daytime unit cost at say 17p/unit for 17hours a day works out to £2.77/month. Total = £3.11/month - assuming the 140mA.
Does that seem reasonable?0 -
That's how I calculated 28W - 140mA x 230V= 28V. (.14 x 230 = whoops its 32.2W. Think I entered .12Atotalsolutions wrote: »You only want to multiply 140mA by the output voltage say 9v, = 1.26watts. At 28Watts the unit would go into meltdown.
Power (Watts) = Voltage (V) X current (I)0 -
I would second John Grays answer, but i got my power meter from ebay for 3.99. Well worth the money,
Most devices with a large PSU, e.g. a router or mobile phone charger, use very little power, 140mA is less than 1 AA battery provides. I would be looking at devices like washing machine and Iron 's with regards to not leaving them switched on.
Hope this helps and puts your mind at rest.0 -
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My Netgear router uses 15w according to a Maplins "measurer"
That's about 2.5 days use for a 11p unit on Scottish Power
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nomoneytoday wrote: »My Netgear router uses 15w according to a Maplins "measurer"
That's about 2.5 days use for a 11p unit on Scottish Power
so £16 for a year...0 -
I got a Maplin power meter (thanks for the suggestion).
The router (Thompson Speedtouch 780WL) indicates about 10-11 watts. So approx about £12/year. Hmm well it is on and in use (not constantly though) almost as much as it is off. So miniscule saving really by turning it off when not in use. Still at least I know - and its been useful taking the meter around to various devices. I was surprised to find a 40W bulb indicated 51W. When I substituted an 11W energy saving bulb (=to 60W) the meter indicated exactly 11W.
We heat our water by immersion overnight on the economy 7 tarrif so that and the electric heating (not storage heaters) consume the lion's share of energy.0
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