Charging your iPad costs as little as $1.36 a year according to the EPRI

The analysis shows that each model of the iPad consumes less than 12 kWh of electricity over the course of a year, based on a full charge every other day. By comparison, a plasma 42” television consumes 358 kWh of electricity a year. EPRI conducted the analysis in Knoxville, Tenn., at its power utilization laboratory. Costs may vary depending on what region that a consumer resides and the price of electricity in a particular location.

The assessment was conducted to determine the load requirements – the amount of power needed to operate the devices -- of the increasingly popular iPad. According to Apple, 67 million of the devices have been purchased worldwide.

EPRI calculations show that the average energy used by all iPads in the market is approximately 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. A quadrupling of sales in two years would require energy generated by three 250-MW power plants.

This came as a bit of a surprise to me; I assumed it would cost a lot more during the course of a year. Obviously if you use a charger in your car it will cost you nothing to charge it up but given that its only $1.36 a year it’s really not worth worrying about.

As a comparison, notebook computers use approximately 72 kWh of electricity which is six times more than the iPad. The next time you are thinking about getting your notebook out to do something that can easily be done on an iPad, think again. It could save you a few dollars each year just by using your iPad more.

Source: EPRI