An iPhone uses more power than a fridge!!!

[Yogesh Sarkar]

I just went through this interesting article on a new research, which has concluded that an iPhone might actually be using more power than a fridge (for charging, data usage and wireless connectivity).

Does your smartphone use more energy than a refrigerator? A recent report by the Digital Power Group claimed that an average iPhone uses more juice for battery charging, data use, and wireless connectivity than a medium-sized, ENERGY STAR refrigerator.

Source: Six Stealthy Energy Hogs: Are They Lurking in Your Home?

While I agree that it is an extreme take, it is something worth pondering over, especially since all of us have multiple smart phones, tablets, set top boxes and tons of other digital gear at home, which are in no doubt, inflating our already inflated electricity bills.

Hence I thought of sharing this with you all.

 

[SachinOnTop]

Nice read!

 

[adsatinder]

I also switch off cable STB.
DVR can also be taken care of if one understands the buttons to use.

Iphone is charged once a day then it takes 3 units of power in few hours?

 

[tsk1979]

LOL
Here is the study.
http://www.tech-pundit.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/07/Cloud_Begins_With_Coal.pdf?c761ac

Journalists are idiots, and if you look at the article and the actual study, you would know this one is the idiot of idiots
The actual study says that.

To
estimate
the amount of
electricity used to fuel everything that produces, stores, transports,
processes and displays zettabytes of data
,
one must account for the energy used by:

Data centers that have become warehouse
scale supercomputers unlike anything in history
;

U
biquitous b
roadband wired and wir
eless communications networks;

T
he myriad of end
use devices from
PCs to
tablets and smart phones to digital TV
,
and
,

T
he manufacturing facilities producing all the ICT h

So its taking into account energy used for manufacturing, then also energy of the datacenter hosting the video you watch etc.,
Nowhere it says "iphone". It says "Smartphones".

But bottom feeders often require sensationalism to publicize the story. They know that most people will not actually read the study, and then will share such silly articles on their walls etc., leading to high number of eyeballs.

The most comical thing is that the headline is giving the impression that the phones use as much energy as a fridge.
LEts say you get a fridge which uses 100W only(does not exist)
For that to match with phone your phone charging cable would need to draw 20A current.

That would roast the USB standard. When I read such articles, I feel such journalists need to have 20A passed through them.

 

[Yogesh Sarkar]

Read the first paragraph, anyone with a little bit of technical knowledge would know what they mean when they say, "more juice for battery charging, data use, and wireless connectivity than a medium-sized, ENERGY STAR refrigerator." Surely they aren't stating or implying it is just the phone alone which is consuming that much energy.

Sensational headlines are written to draw attention, however content of the article are for people to understand and decipher, rather than take on the face value of the headline. This is called content marketing and if it leads even a few people to turn off their STBs, when not in use, then it has done its work.

 

[tsk1979]

I read and reread it again this is what the article says "A recent report by the Digital Power Group claimed that an average iPhone uses more juice for battery charging, data use, and wireless connectivity than a medium-sized, ENERGY STAR refrigerator." It says the "iphone uses more juice". Its clearly implying that the phone itself is using the energy.

So sensationalistic journalism. Maybe the writer did not know english(I highly doubt that).

 

[Yogesh Sarkar]

If you go through the comments on the article, you will see that you are the only one taking that line on face value. People there are discussing real issues there, rather than commenting, “oh my god, I didn’t know my iPhone used that much power”.

Also as far as I can read and comprehend, nowhere is it stating that it is the iPhone (which the author used as a synonymous for smartphone) is actually drawing that much energy to charge itself. Surely if you have a Wi-Fi router on, just for the sake of your smartphone, you have to factor in the current drawn not only by the phone itself, but also the router. Counting the consumption of other devices in the backend, providing access to various aspect of the online world is a bit extreme for the study/article (mentioned in my first post), however it is just showing a bigger picture and I believe Natgeo and the article author has done a superb job by not getting hung up on just that one thing alone and has gone on to address and educate people about the various other power hogs in their home (of course it is more relevant for Americans than Indians.)

 

[tsk1979]

The linked article states
recent report by the Digital Power Group claimed that an average iPhone uses more juice for battery charging, data use, and wireless connectivity than a medium-sized, ENERGY STAR refrigerator

What does the line iphone uses mean.

 

[anupmathur]

Why does only the iPhone find mention in this article?

This comes across as iPhone bashing!

 

[Yogesh Sarkar]

Read my earlier comment, even after that you can't understand the iPhone part, then well, ask the author.