Tuesday, February 03, 2015

How much does your home Wi-Fi router cost in electricity to run?

I think some people will be quite surprised to find out that their Wi-Fi router costs around half the cost of their refrigerator to run. Yes that's right. That small box costs about half the price to run that the huge fridge does, that is storing a couple of hundred dollars of food at any time.

I measured my Wi-Fi router and entered the watts usage value into the Energy Cost Calculator I wrote. My Wi-Fi router uses around 20 watts of power. The cost per year for that little box is around $46. Every two years the box is costing me as much in electricity as it cost for me to buy the box.

Now given I have no need for the Wi-Fi router when I'm asleep, or when I'm out and about, I've decided to add a remote control power switch and turn the Wi-Fi router off whilst it isn't needed. Whilst I expect to save around a third of the electricity cost (basically that's the time whilst I sleep), I actually think the real saving will be probably half or more of the electricity usage cost. The remote control switch I already had, but if I didn't, it would have cost around $12, so the remote control switch would pay for itself in no time.

Do you have appliances that are quietly sipping away and costing you money?

It may be worth doing an energy review of your appliances. All that is required is a low cost power meter (around $25) and then plug your figures into the Energy Cost Calculator at www.EnergyCostCalculator.com.au. With a few small adjustments in your power usage behaviour you'll be surprised at the savings. We're currently using around 4.6 kWh per day which is about 10 kWh below the average for the area. That's nearly a $1,000 tax free we're saving each year. For may people that will be about two weeks of work they need to do each year just for electricity they could easily avoid using if only they took the time to review the appliances they use around the home.

I feel it is better to have the money in your pocket than the electricity company.

Kelvin Eldridge
www.EnergyCostCalcuator.com.au
Knowledge isn't power, it saves your money.

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