Apple iPad is quite green when it comes to charging
The annual cost of charging your iPad may surprise you for the better.
PCWorld recently profiled how much it costs to charge your iPad each year. The Electric Power Research Institute found that it costs a mere $1.36 for the electricity needed to power the device up to 100 percent. And that’s based on charging your iPad every other day.
Many people probably pay way less than that, as normal iPad users can go almost a week without charging.
The tests show that the iPad consumes less than 12 kWh of power yearly , compared to a 42-inch plasma TV which drains 358kWh.
Apple’s environmental footprint is something the Cupertino-based company prides itself on. It reports its environmental impact comprehensively. For example, in 2011, Apple estimates they were responsible for 23.1 million metric tons of greenhouse gas emissions. Of those emissions, manufacturing, including the extraction of raw materials and product assembly, account for 61 percent.
Apple has also made improvements on its devices to help reduce emissions. The iPad to the iPad 2 dropped emissions by 5 percent. The 2006 15″ MacBook Pro, however, compared to the 2011 MacBook Pro in the same size experienced a 21 percent drop.
The Mac Mini dropped 52 percent from its 2007 model to its 2011 model.
LapTop PCs consumer about 72.3 kWh of electricity annually, costing consumers about $8.31, according to PC World. As the world becomes more of a tablet-driven environment, energy usage could go down.
“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,” Mark McGranaghan, vice president of Power Delivery and Utilization at EPRI, told PC World.
Of course, annual cost of charging your iPad depends on what you use it for. For the news junkie who mainly uses it to the read the news in the morning and then occasionally throughout the day, it’ll probably cost you less. For the heavy gamer that recharges everyday, and maybe even in the middle day, it could cost more.
What kind of iPad user are you?
June 27th, 2012
I use my iPad for music and bits of news. At most I charge my iPad every few days. There are times when I will go a week without needing to charge it. At least I know my iPad isn’t killing the environment!