3 ms·

IPhone uses more electricity than a fridge

8 points by nreece 13y ago

crististm 13y ago
So basically they are saying you can plug the 10W or so Iphone charger to the fridge somehow and get the same amount of freezing over a day? Engineers beware. 24 h * 10W is not 1KW and that means running the charger all day long. I don't know where they come with these figure but I can only imagine.
anshargal 13y ago
1. As far as I know, most powerful Apple charger is 12W (iPad 4) 2. I assume that iPhone is not discharging when it is plugged in this charger while being actively used (probably true even for less powerful chargers) 3. Wolfram: "12W for a year in kWh" ( http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=12W+for+a+year+in+kWh http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=12W+for+a+year+in+kWh ) = 105.1 kWh 4. Article says that iPhone consumes 361kWh which is more than a fridge(322kWh). Either I don't understand something, or this is bullshit.
sitharus 13y ago
I'm not sure how this is possible. On one hand I'm not hugely surprised - once fridge is at temperature it doesn't require much energy to sustain it if people don't open the doors, but on the other the iPhone uses a tiny amount of power. Back of the envelope says the 10W charger can use 240W a day, or 87.6kWh per year when in constant use, which it won't be. I wonder how many fridges my laptop could power.
sitharus 13y ago
After some digging this is a syndicated article from here: http://www.shns.com/web/guest/shns-search?p_p_id=listenersearchresults_WAR_searchportlet_INSTANCE_igtl3uEpHlGZ&p_p_lifecycle=0&p_p_state=normal&p_p_mode=view&p_p_col_id=column-2&p_p_col_pos=1&p_p_col_count=2&_listenersearchresults_WAR_searchportlet_INSTANCE_igtl3uEpHlGZ_pageNumber=1&_listenersearchresults_WAR_searchportlet_INSTANCE_igtl3uEpHlGZ_search=iphone&_listenersearchresults_WAR_searchportlet_INSTANCE_igtl3uEpHlGZ_match=a&_listenersearchresults_WAR_searchportlet_INSTANCE_igtl3uEpHlGZ_sort=d&_listenersearchresults_WAR_searchportlet_INSTANCE_igtl3uEpHlGZ_byline=&_listenersearchresults_WAR_searchportlet_INSTANCE_igtl3uEpHlGZ_sws=false&_listenersearchresults_WAR_searchportlet_INSTANCE_igtl3uEpHlGZ_source=&_listenersearchresults_WAR_searchportlet_INSTANCE_igtl3uEpHlGZ_loc=&_listenersearchresults_WAR_searchportlet_INSTANCE_igtl3uEpHlGZ_daterng=&_listenersearchresults_WAR_searchportlet_INSTANCE_igtl3uEpHlGZ_searchHZ=false&_listenersearchresults_WAR_searchportlet_INSTANCE_igtl3uEpHlGZ_searchVT=false&_listenersearchresults_WAR_searchportlet_INSTANCE_igtl3uEpHlGZ_searchPhoto=false&_listenersearchresults_WAR_searchportlet_INSTANCE_igtl3uEpHlGZ_searchVideo=false&_listenersearchresults_WAR_searchportlet_INSTANCE_igtl3uEpHlGZ_searchFeature=&_listenersearchresults_WAR_searchportlet_INSTANCE_igtl3uEpHlGZ_searchFeatures=&_listenersearchresults_WAR_searchportlet_INSTANCE_igtl3uEpHlGZ_searchText=false&_listenersearchresults_WAR_searchportlet_INSTANCE_igtl3uEpHlGZ_struts.portlet.action=%2Fview%2Fview%2FshowDetail&_listenersearchresults_WAR_searchportlet_INSTANCE_igtl3uEpHlGZ_struts.portlet.mode=view&_listenersearchresults_WAR_searchportlet_INSTANCE_igtl3uEpHlGZ_tagId=shnsnewslive014108 http://www.shns.com/web/guest/shns-search?p_p_id=listenersea... That's a horrible URL. Who cite the Digital Power Group, who seem to be here: http://www.tech-pundit.com http://www.tech-pundit.com but don't appear to really exist. Finally you end up at this WSJ video: http://live.wsj.com/video/what-uses-less-energy-an-iphone-or-a-fridge/FA9F7615-3185-418B-B3BF-7DFD4B98CB35.html#!FA9F7615-3185-418B-B3BF-7DFD4B98CB35 http://live.wsj.com/video/what-uses-less-energy-an-iphone-or... Where they say it's 38c/yr for power vs $66/yr for the iPhone. What they're talking about is total energy including manufacturing the cellular network and the whole internet. Quite different. [edit: added manufacturing to the energy list]
EiZei 13y ago
The iPhone 5 battery is specced as 5.45 watts, even assuming 100% load all the time wouldn't this mean less than 50 kWh a year?
Dylan16807 13y ago
This article is a piece of trash, and so is the report it's based on. The report was talking about the entirety of phone towers and datacenters and servers. You can't blame the entire internet on phones. The actual phone uses almost nothing, somewhere around 4kWh per year. http://blog.opower.com/2012/09/how-much-does-it-cost-to-charge-an-iphone-5-a-thought-provokingly-modest-0-41year/ http://blog.opower.com/2012/09/how-much-does-it-cost-to-char... http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2013/08/17/links-17-aug-your-iphone-uses-more-energy-than-your-refrigerator/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2013/08/17/links-17-... This version is much more fun.
deleted 13y ago
[deleted]
kens 13y ago
I read the original paper † and according to footnote 1 it's measuring iPad usage as network operations + network embodied energy + tablet embodied energy, ignoring data centers and end-use tablet charging. That's right, this calculation ignores the energy the tablet actually uses. "tablet embodied energy" is the energy from manufacturing the tablet, and "network embodied energy" is the energy to build the cellphone network. "network operations" is the energy to transmit data through the network which is being counted at 2kWh/GB. Since the average electricity cost in the US is 12.4 cents / kWh, that works out to data transmission costing 25 cents of electricity per GB, which seems crazy high. Needless to say, this paper is very controversial, see ††. TL;DR: The iPhone electricity usage in the paper is ignoring the actual electricity usage of the iPhone and counting lots of other hand-wavey things. † http://www.tech-pundit.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Cloud_Begins_With_Coal.pdf?c761ac http://www.tech-pundit.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Cloud_... †† http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/20/iphone-energy-refrigerator-controversial-study_n_3782211.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/20/iphone-energy-refri... which is more informative than you'd expect from Huffington Post. Edit: The paper is titled "The Cloud Begins With Coal" and is sponsored by the National Mining Association and the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity.
jack9 13y ago
In other news, the iPhone uses more electricity than a couch and more electricity than a tv remote. I guess this is a big deal.

8 points by nreece 13y ago

So basically they are saying you can plug the 10W or so Iphone charger to the fridge somehow and get the same amount of freezing over a day? Engineers beware. 24 h * 10W is not 1KW and that means running the charger all day long. I don't know where they come with these figure but I can only imagine.

anshargal 13y ago

1. As far as I know, most powerful Apple charger is 12W (iPad 4) 2. I assume that iPhone is not discharging when it is plugged in this charger while being actively used (probably true even for less powerful chargers) 3. Wolfram: "12W for a year in kWh" ( http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=12W+for+a+year+in+kWh http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=12W+for+a+year+in+kWh ) = 105.1 kWh 4. Article says that iPhone consumes 361kWh which is more than a fridge(322kWh). Either I don't understand something, or this is bullshit.

sitharus 13y ago

I'm not sure how this is possible. On one hand I'm not hugely surprised - once fridge is at temperature it doesn't require much energy to sustain it if people don't open the doors, but on the other the iPhone uses a tiny amount of power. Back of the envelope says the 10W charger can use 240W a day, or 87.6kWh per year when in constant use, which it won't be. I wonder how many fridges my laptop could power.

sitharus 13y ago

After some digging this is a syndicated article from here: http://www.shns.com/web/guest/shns-search?p_p_id=listenersearchresults_WAR_searchportlet_INSTANCE_igtl3uEpHlGZ&p_p_lifecycle=0&p_p_state=normal&p_p_mode=view&p_p_col_id=column-2&p_p_col_pos=1&p_p_col_count=2&_listenersearchresults_WAR_searchportlet_INSTANCE_igtl3uEpHlGZ_pageNumber=1&_listenersearchresults_WAR_searchportlet_INSTANCE_igtl3uEpHlGZ_search=iphone&_listenersearchresults_WAR_searchportlet_INSTANCE_igtl3uEpHlGZ_match=a&_listenersearchresults_WAR_searchportlet_INSTANCE_igtl3uEpHlGZ_sort=d&_listenersearchresults_WAR_searchportlet_INSTANCE_igtl3uEpHlGZ_byline=&_listenersearchresults_WAR_searchportlet_INSTANCE_igtl3uEpHlGZ_sws=false&_listenersearchresults_WAR_searchportlet_INSTANCE_igtl3uEpHlGZ_source=&_listenersearchresults_WAR_searchportlet_INSTANCE_igtl3uEpHlGZ_loc=&_listenersearchresults_WAR_searchportlet_INSTANCE_igtl3uEpHlGZ_daterng=&_listenersearchresults_WAR_searchportlet_INSTANCE_igtl3uEpHlGZ_searchHZ=false&_listenersearchresults_WAR_searchportlet_INSTANCE_igtl3uEpHlGZ_searchVT=false&_listenersearchresults_WAR_searchportlet_INSTANCE_igtl3uEpHlGZ_searchPhoto=false&_listenersearchresults_WAR_searchportlet_INSTANCE_igtl3uEpHlGZ_searchVideo=false&_listenersearchresults_WAR_searchportlet_INSTANCE_igtl3uEpHlGZ_searchFeature=&_listenersearchresults_WAR_searchportlet_INSTANCE_igtl3uEpHlGZ_searchFeatures=&_listenersearchresults_WAR_searchportlet_INSTANCE_igtl3uEpHlGZ_searchText=false&_listenersearchresults_WAR_searchportlet_INSTANCE_igtl3uEpHlGZ_struts.portlet.action=%2Fview%2Fview%2FshowDetail&_listenersearchresults_WAR_searchportlet_INSTANCE_igtl3uEpHlGZ_struts.portlet.mode=view&_listenersearchresults_WAR_searchportlet_INSTANCE_igtl3uEpHlGZ_tagId=shnsnewslive014108 http://www.shns.com/web/guest/shns-search?p_p_id=listenersea... That's a horrible URL. Who cite the Digital Power Group, who seem to be here: http://www.tech-pundit.com http://www.tech-pundit.com but don't appear to really exist. Finally you end up at this WSJ video: http://live.wsj.com/video/what-uses-less-energy-an-iphone-or-a-fridge/FA9F7615-3185-418B-B3BF-7DFD4B98CB35.html#!FA9F7615-3185-418B-B3BF-7DFD4B98CB35 http://live.wsj.com/video/what-uses-less-energy-an-iphone-or... Where they say it's 38c/yr for power vs $66/yr for the iPhone. What they're talking about is total energy including manufacturing the cellular network and the whole internet. Quite different. [edit: added manufacturing to the energy list]

EiZei 13y ago

The iPhone 5 battery is specced as 5.45 watts, even assuming 100% load all the time wouldn't this mean less than 50 kWh a year?

Dylan16807 13y ago

This article is a piece of trash, and so is the report it's based on. The report was talking about the entirety of phone towers and datacenters and servers. You can't blame the entire internet on phones. The actual phone uses almost nothing, somewhere around 4kWh per year. http://blog.opower.com/2012/09/how-much-does-it-cost-to-charge-an-iphone-5-a-thought-provokingly-modest-0-41year/ http://blog.opower.com/2012/09/how-much-does-it-cost-to-char... http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2013/08/17/links-17-aug-your-iphone-uses-more-energy-than-your-refrigerator/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/timworstall/2013/08/17/links-17-... This version is much more fun.

deleted 13y ago

[deleted]

kens 13y ago

I read the original paper † and according to footnote 1 it's measuring iPad usage as network operations + network embodied energy + tablet embodied energy, ignoring data centers and end-use tablet charging. That's right, this calculation ignores the energy the tablet actually uses. "tablet embodied energy" is the energy from manufacturing the tablet, and "network embodied energy" is the energy to build the cellphone network. "network operations" is the energy to transmit data through the network which is being counted at 2kWh/GB. Since the average electricity cost in the US is 12.4 cents / kWh, that works out to data transmission costing 25 cents of electricity per GB, which seems crazy high. Needless to say, this paper is very controversial, see ††. TL;DR: The iPhone electricity usage in the paper is ignoring the actual electricity usage of the iPhone and counting lots of other hand-wavey things. † http://www.tech-pundit.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Cloud_Begins_With_Coal.pdf?c761ac http://www.tech-pundit.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Cloud_... †† http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/20/iphone-energy-refrigerator-controversial-study_n_3782211.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/08/20/iphone-energy-refri... which is more informative than you'd expect from Huffington Post. Edit: The paper is titled "The Cloud Begins With Coal" and is sponsored by the National Mining Association and the American Coalition for Clean Coal Electricity.

jack9 13y ago

In other news, the iPhone uses more electricity than a couch and more electricity than a tv remote. I guess this is a big deal.