For me, my laptop lets me work from anywhere, stay in touch with family and friends, and enjoy my favorite activities. These devices are very flexible and can be used for work, contact, and fun. As we use computers more, it’s essential to know how much power they use, especially since the price of electricity is going up. Let’s talk about how many watts a laptop needs.
How many watts does a laptop need?
Different tasks can make laptops use anywhere from 30 to 200 watts per hour. An example would be when playing games on my computer rather than browsing the web; I use my laptop daily for writing, video calls, watching, and occasionally playing games – thus increasing its power usage accordingly. An energy monitor can tell you exactly how much power you are using. You can even buy a portable one that you can plug your laptop into while you do other things. You can also use some websites’ tools to get an idea of how much power your computer will use based on how it is used and its specs, or you can use specialized software like HWMonitor, Open Hardware Monitor, and OuterVision to keep an eye on how much power your laptop’s parts are using.
What Wattage Do Popular Laptops Require?
Let’s quickly look at how much power some well-known brands and types need,
- starting with Apple MacBook Pro (M1): 30 to 60 Watts
- 5 to 65 watts for HP Spectre x360;
- 30-45 Watts for Samsung Galaxy Book;
- 40-55 watts for Acer Aspire;
- 35-50 Watts for Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon;
- 30 to 50 watts for Dell XPS 13 (XPS 13 is in range);
- 50 Watts Your laptop brand and power information should be easy to locate.
Wattage of a laptop per month or year
How much it costs to find out how many watts your laptop uses varies on how often you use it and how much electricity costs. A computer that uses 30 watts of power for 10 hours a day costs about $0.045 a day, or $1.35 a month, to run at a rate of 15 cents/kWh. The brand and size of the laptop are two more things to think about.
Based on power, here’s an idea of how much electricity your laptop will use each month and each year if you use it for eight hours a day on average:
At 30 watts, it costs about $1.08 a month or $12.96 a year for 7.2 kWh of electricity per month or 86.4 kWh per year.
At 70 watts, it costs about $2.52 a month or $30.24 a year for 16.8 kWh of power or 201.6 kWh of electricity.
Laptops for gaming (300–500 watts): These use a lot more energy, so the monthly and yearly costs are higher. As an example:
At 300 watts, it costs about $10.80 a month or $129.60 a year for 72 kWh of power, or 864 kWh.
That’s 120 kWh per month or 1440 kWh per year. It costs about $18.00 per month or $216.00 per year for 500 watts.
Keep in mind that the wattage for gaming laptops will rely on the screen brightness, CPU wattage, and TGP of the graphics card. High-performance settings are generally what gamers want, especially on laptops with high refresh rates, lots of fans, and other features.
Things that affect laptop wattage
If you know what makes your laptop use more or less power, you can make intelligent choices about how to use it and save energy. These are the main things that determine how many watts your laptop needs:
Size and light of the screen:
Bigger screens use more power. Power use is also directly related to how bright the screen is. To lower power use, you can either reduce the brightness of the screen or choose a power-saving screen mode.
Condition of the Battery—
Older computers may use more power because their batteries are wearing out faster. To get the most out of your control, make sure your battery is in good shape.
Graphics Card—
A powerful graphics card can use more power, especially when doing intensive jobs like editing videos or playing games.
Charging Habits—
Charging too often can make the device use more power. Using energy more efficiently can be helped by charging in the best way.
Getting connected to solar power
The price of electricity changes a lot based on where you live. In the United States, electricity costs about 15 cents per kWh on average. In some areas, it can be as low as 10 cents per kWh and as high as 28 cents per kWh. Knowing how much your laptop and other electronics and appliances cost is essential if you want to save money. Buying a solar generator is a smart way to cut down on high power bills. If you switch to solar power, you could save a lot of money. For instance, using solar energy to power your laptop can lower your electricity cost, mainly if you use devices that use a lot of power, like gaming laptops. Solar panels are an environmentally friendly and long-lasting way to get power. They can help you use less electricity from the power grid and generally save you money on your energy bills. It’s easy to move around and performs very well, which makes this small power station a must-have for outdoor activities, WFH settings, cabin use, and more.
Questions people often ask about how to power a computer
How many solar panels do you need to power a computer?
Computers need about 50 W of electricity to stay turned on. Some solar panels have power ratings of up to 350 W, which is enough to power a computer.
When is the best time to use a computer?
If your rate plan is time-of-use (TOU), you are charged different amounts for energy at other times of the day. In general, it costs less to use equipment at “off-peak” times, which are usually at night.
Most lithium-ion batteries, like the Tesla Powerwall or Generac PWRcell, have a power rating of 4 to 5 kW & 10 kWh or more of usable capacity. This means that they can all run a computer. At any given time, a computer uses about 50 W (0.05 kW) of power. This means that a battery can back up and power your laptop for extended amounts of time and with more powerful computers.
What devices do ENERGY STAR mean?
The U.S. government backs ENERGY STAR, a program that rates how energy-efficient machines are. Any appliance that is better by a certain amount than the average device in its class is marked as “ENERGY STAR certified.” Because they use less power, ENERGY STAR appliances cost less to run.
Last Thoughts
How many watts does a laptop use? Most of the time, computers don’t need a lot of power, and you can make them use less power. But because energy costs are going up, you should think about all of your electronics, especially the ones you use for long periods. You can also use solar power to power your laptops and other home gadgets in an eco-friendly and pocket-friendly way.
