WiFi routers come into most homes, and as a 24-hour power consuming home appliance, it will generate a portion of its power consumption each month. People can’t help but wonder if it consumes a lot of electricity. How much electricity bill will it generate?
Its power is far less than air conditioners, microwave ovens and other power-consuming devices, commonly used in the market WiFi router power in 3W ~ 15W.
Formula for calculating the monthly power consumption of WiFi router:
Monthly power consumption (KWh) = power (W) * daily operation time * 30/1000
Assuming that the WiFi router operates all day long and has a power of 10W, then its power consumption in a month is about 7.2KW.
Assuming a local electricity rate of $0.1 per kWh, this WiFi router will generate $0.72 per month. This number may seem small, but various household appliances combined will generate quite a bit of electricity in a month.
Usually the more powerful the router, the more complex its internal circuitry is, so it consumes more power.
Different manufacturers make routers of different quality, and a quality router may optimize its internal circuitry, resulting in more power consumption.
Routers consume different amounts of power when they are in different environmental states. A router placed on the floor, in a cabinet, or covered by other objects will consume more power than a router placed in an open space.
In most cases, it is not recommended to turn off the router.
3.1 Because the router may be updated at night to enhance its security.
3.2 Switching the router on and off frequently will waste time. The router’s startup process requires self-testing, connection establishment, etc. This will consume some time and will result in a bad experience for users who are in desperate need of WiFi.
3.3 For some smart devices (e.g. cameras, doorbells, voice-activated lights, etc.), they may not be able to get away from the WiFi router. If the router is turned off, they will also be unable to work and provide convenience for life.
The router can also be turned off in special circumstances
3.4 Suppose your family members will be out of town and will not be coming home for a long time. Then it is really good to turn off the router, not only to save the electricity bill, but also to prevent hackers from intruding and secure the network.
3.5 The router may heat up when it operates for a long time, accelerating the aging process and shortening its lifespan. Turning off the router occasionally can one accelerate the heat dissipation and hide the service life of the device.
3.6 Restarting the router can solve some connection problems and optimize network performance.
From the above discussion, we can see that turning off the router all night is not an excellent practice to reduce the power consumption of the router, and the following are better practices.
4.1 Choose a WiFi router that suits your needs, a powerful one may not be suitable for us and will cause energy consumption.
4.2 Optimize the placement of your WiFi router. Choosing an open space to place the router will improve the network quality, thus reducing the increased power consumption of the router due to adjusting the signal.
4.3 Clean the router regularly. You can use the router’s management interface or third-party software to clean the router’s cache and junk files regularly to reduce the load on the router, thus reducing the power consumption.
The router consumes not much power per month. According to the above methods, you can reduce the energy consumption. As to whether to turn off the router, it depends on your specific needs. In any case, the router should not be switched on and off frequently.
