Like many people, you probably recharge your precious smartphone every day, or almost. But do you know how much this essential operation costs? We did the math. And it will surprise you…
As our precious smartphones run on electricity, they need to be recharged regularly. More or less often, depending on their use and the capacity of their battery. And as harmless as it may be, this recharging has a cost, because the electricity drawn from the mains socket is not free. Especially when you repeat the operation every day and with several devices!
The calculation is not very complicated. It depends on the amount of electricity needed to fill the battery. Quantity which is measured in Wh (watt-hour, the unit of electrical consumption) and which results directly from the capacity of the accumulator, expressed in mAh (milliamp-hour, the unit of electrical charge). The greater the capacity of the battery, the more electricity it will take to fill it, and the more recharging will cost – just like filling a vehicle’s tank! And the charging speed doesn’t matter: fast chargers are mainly used to speed up the operation, by quickly providing a large quantity of energy. But this quantity is only linked to the battery.
In practice, most current smartphones have batteries with a capacity between 3000 and 5000 mAh. And it takes around 4 Wh to charge 1000 mAh, taking into account the inevitable losses. Thus, it takes approximately 13 Wh to charge an iPhone 14 (3300 mAh battery), 17 Wh for a Google Pixel 7 (4300 mAh battery) and 20 Wh for a Xiaomi Redmi Note 11 (5000 mAh battery). Even if they are deliberately very rounded to simplify the calculations, these figures provide essential information: charging a smartphone consumes little electricity. Really very little.
And this consumption is even more impressive when we compare it to its cost. Indeed, to the extent that the regulated electricity price in France in May 2024 is €0.2516 including tax per kWh as a basic option (€0.2700 during peak hours and €0.2068 during off-peak hours), consuming 1000 Wh (i.e. 1 kWh) costs 25.16 cents. A consumption of 10 Wh (i.e. 100 times less) comes to 0.2516 cents. Using our examples of smartphones, we can thus estimate the unit charging costs of 0.3271 cents for an iPhone 14, 0.4277 cents for a Pixel 7 and 0.5032 cents for models with a 5000 mAh battery like the Xiaomi Redmi Note 11. Derisory!
And assuming that we recharge these devices every day, the cost per year remains very low: €1.19 for an iPhone 14 and rather 1.56 euros per year for a Pixel 7, which also needs to go back through the recharge box often. But “large” battery models are more economical, because they are more durable. And we remain well below the 2 euros per year per smartphone! Really very little compared to the services provided.