How Many Watts Does a Laptop use?
There are some aspects that laptop users don’t seem to be worried about or aren’t something to worry about. However, if you’re curious and are trying to figure out How Many Watts Does a Laptop use? along with everything about the laptop you’ve used for a while or find out the energy usage of the model you’re planning to purchase, We can help you understand it.
If you’re interested in figures, The answer is simple: a standard computer of 15 inches consumes around 60 watts in an hour. But, it’s far from the actual amount that it will consume.
Energy consumption is affected by various variables that you might not know about. Like charging, the brightness of the screen operating applications, graphic card usage, and so on. These are only a few aspects that could influence energy consumption.
Energy Consumption in Laptops: The Factors
Before we get to the aspects that determine it, you should consider some factors. First, there are a lot of companies that make laptops every year. As we advance towards more efficient utilization of technology businesses, have been working on designing the most efficient machine that consumes the least amount of power but still performs just as well as other laptops you’ve previously used.
The type of laptop you own will affect how much power it consumes all-around. The more external hardware you connect to, the more power it consumes. Let’s look at the various factors upon which power consumption is dependent.
1. Laptop Type [Gaming Laptops & Workstations Consume Higher Power]
One of the primary elements determining the amount of energy consumed is the kind of laptop you’ve been using. Using a simple and basic notebook will consume around 60 watts/hour of energy if you’re using a simple and basic notebook.
Using a gaming laptop or another premium laptop is much higher. Based on our tests, some models exceed 100W/hour on average. This is why laptops get very hot and require cooling pads to keep them cool. If you’re charging laptops, it will increase the amount.
2. CPU
It is well-known that laptops that have an extremely low-end CPU or processor utilize more power uploads greater than any CPU with high performance like Intel i7 or Intel i9 will utilize. The reason isn’t as difficult as it might seem. A processor that might not perform as expected will require more power to supply your laptop with adequate performance, whereas a top CPU is excellent for the tiny amount of power that it requires.
3. Graphics Card
Higher graphic card performance, more powerful to consume the power. When playing an extremely high-end game, the GPU on your laptop will give you superior visuals. Most gaming computers and workstations
A laptop equipped with a premium GPU is often accompanied by a powerful CPU, too. In most cases, the laptop also has an upgraded display and a larger battery, and so on. So, they all consume more energy. There is a separate section in this article that discusses the power consumption of gaming laptops.
If you’re buying a budget 2-in-1 laptop or a budget model with integrated graphics, then it’s likely to use less power!
4. Adapter Wattage
The majority of 15.6-inch laptops have a 60W charger.
Most 17-inch laptops have an adapter for charging that can run 90W.
If your laptop has an adapter with 60W, it will consume less power than a laptop with a 90W adapter since this is the number of watts it will consume when using it.
How Many Watts Does Gaming Laptop Use?
Another important laptop category that deserves particular attention since everything related to laptops for gaming is compelling and requires specific components. If you are a fan of gaming, it is easy to see that to play high-end games, the laptop needs to perform at its highest.
Furthermore, most gaming laptop is large and heavy because they are fitted with the finest of everything. From processors to having strong batteries, Gaming laptops are equipped with everything.
To determine what power consumption a gaming laptop is, you might want to look at the charger it’s being charged by. For example, Acer Predator Helios 300 is among the top popular gaming laptops. Acer Predator Helios 300, which we’ve mentioned in every laptop review as one of the top laptops, is equipped with a power of 180W. This means that it uses a minimum of 150 Watts every hour.
How Many Watts Does an Apple MacBook Use?
If you’re a Macbook owner, you need to be aware that a standard 13-inch Macbook Pro consumes 61 watts of power when connected to the charger, whereas is a 15-inch Macbook consumes 87 Watts/h.
Based on these assumptions, you can quickly determine the cost of the energy you consume daily and over a week. As the Macbook consumes around 61 Watts per hour, i.e., 0.061 kWh, and operates for approximately 10 hours per day, it’s expected to cost around 7.32 cents for the total cost of 51.24 cents per week (taking 12 cents/kWh cost of electricity).
Strategies to Consume Less power on your laptop
If you’ve already realized the power consumption by your laptop but are not happy about the outcome, you might be required to come up with methods to use less power. We’ve tried a few ways to power our laptops and have discovered various ways that you could try too.
It is essential to take the plug off of the laptop once it is fully charged.
Don’t overcharge your laptop, as it can weaken the battery and use more power.
Plugin the charger once the charge is at 10 percent. This procedure requires extra effort to recharge the battery and draw more energy.
Get a cooling pad for your laptop to keep your laptop cool during charging.
To limit the consumption, allow your laptop a few minutes to cool before you begin your work.
Upgrade your processor and other hardware to reduce tension on your system.
Always make sure to use the original charger supplied by the company.
There are various other ways that you could try to draw energy. For example, the display’s brightness can draw a lot of energy. You can reduce this by dimming your screen when it is not in use and, in addition protecting your eyes.
How to calculate Watts Consumed by a Laptop?
In the end, it comes to an understanding of a few strategies to calculate the actual power consumption of your laptop. You can either determine the approximate by studying the laptop’s power consumption and other variables. Use an electric use monitor to determine the power consumption of your laptop.
1. Manual Calculation
In each laptop, you can determine the approximate amount of power that your laptop uses by considering the power used in charging the laptop (Adapter Wattage.) However, if you want an exact number, you might need to consider other aspects.
When we talked about our review of the Acer Predator Laptop, it comes with a charging adapter that can consume 180 Watts of power per hour. In addition, it has several other components that can boost the overall power consumption, including the CPU and GPU of the device.
In the majority of the devices, you’ll readily locate Intel processors and NVIDIA graphic cards, and even AMD. It is possible to search the official website to find out the power usage the components consume or look inside the back panel and check it out yourself and make sure.
Most of the time, the range of power consumption for the CPU is 45W-50W, while for GPUs, it ranges from 70W-80W. In the end, these two components boost the power consumption of laptops up to 10%, but this is just an average figure and could go higher according to the components that are used.
If we also discuss the screen’s brightness, it ranges between 0.5W to 15W/hour with the maximum brightness. These are just a few of the components that are taken into consideration, but there are many more like the SSD/HDD, RAM. and so on. So it isn’t straightforward to find the exact number. However, an approximate figure can be determined for a general concept.
Additionally, as we are aware that it consumes around 60 watts of energy which is equivalent to 0.06 kWh, so the laptop will be running for 8 hours roughly. Therefore, it would cost 6.76 cents per day to power the laptop (considering the average unit of the energy cost of 12 cents per kWh).
2. Electricity Usage: The Calculation
To make a more precise calculation, it is possible to use an Electricity Usage Monitor. It can be connected to the power outlet and provide you with the exact amount of watts your laptop was using while charging. It is all-inclusive since all power used comes from one socket. The result will be visible on the screen within a few moments.
It is also possible to use the device to power other appliances in your home. It’s not always necessary. However, curiosity can lead you to think of things you’d never imagined.
To make use of it, place the device on your wall and connect the charger to the device. It will begin to read the power that your charger draws out of the socket. It will typically show about 60W, the power the charger was designed with.
Additionally, after the laptop is fully charged, the battery will be fully charged. Therefore, you will see the amount of power the laptop uses from its battery and components. Additionally, this tool helps find out the total amount of power consumed by the laptop when you’ve utilized it.
It is easy to purchase this handy device from online websites. You can also purchase it and get more information about your laptop and other appliances.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does a laptop consume less energy than a PC?
There is no doubt that laptops consume less power than PCs. The laptop uses less power than a computer because it has numerous components. In addition, there are a variety of laptops that use more power than the standard laptop. So, let’s look at the number of watts laptops consume and what other factors depend on this.
Is the Laptop Wattage Differ for different brands such as Acer, Dell, ASUS, HP, etc.?
It doesn’t matter what model the laptop you are using, regardless of whether it’s HP, Lenovo, DELL, ASUS, Acer, MSI, Razer Blade, etc. The watt usage guidelines remain the same. If the laptop has top specs and a powerful GPU, and a high-end processor, the consumption will be very high. If two laptops from the same brand have similar specs, the wattage will not differ too much.
Gaming Laptop Wattage vs. Basic Laptop Wattage: Which one is greater?
The gaming laptop’s power is higher than the standard low-end laptop. It’s because it’s equipped with superior quality displays with higher resolution better graphics, and the adapter’s wattage is also high, as is the CPU.
How many watts does a 15.6-inch laptop consume?
We compared the specs of 237 laptops and discovered that the majority of 15.6-inch laptops use around 60 watts on average.
Laptop Wattage in 17-inch Machines?
We checked the specifications of 171 different 17-inch models and discovered that laptops consume around 90 Watts!
The Verdict
In conclusion How Many Watts Does a Laptop Use? let’s look over the things we have discussed regarding how laptops consume power. A charged laptop consumes around 60W of power; however, when it is in use, significantly more is dependent on other components taken in.
It is better to utilize an instrument to determine laptops’ watts rather than relying on the manual approach. The method used might not yield the most accurate results and make you feel confused. If you’re just in need of some ideas, you can make use of your time and mind. However, if you require precise results to fulfill a specific need, use your Electricity Usage Monitor to get exact results.
In the meantime, inform us about your laptop’s power consumption and what you did to reduce power consumption.
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