How to determine whether your Wi-Fi repeater or router is using excessive amounts of electricity
It is crucial to manage which devices are always on if you want to reduce your electricity costs. Your router is a prime illustration. Additionally, you might have a Wi-Fi repeater that is always connected. How can you determine whether it is using excessive amounts of electricity? We will talk about this in this piece. We will make some suggestions.
Perhaps you are unsure if your outdated router is consuming excessive amounts of power. Perhaps you recently invested in a repeater to boost your internet connection, but you are unsure if the cost will be prohibitive. Checking how much it is consuming could be a good idea.
We can start by stating that these are energy-efficient appliances. It is not the same as, say, plugging in a refrigerator, stove, or oven. It is important to remember, though, that these appliances continue to function normally for weeks and months on end.
Consult the manual or label.
Examine the label or instruction manual as a first step. Among other things, you should be able to see the power data there, including the power it possesses. This will help you determine if the gadget uses excessive amounts of electricity or does not make a significant contribution to your monthly bill. It is always possible to compare it to other models. To find out whether the power consumption of other routers or repeaters is the same, higher, or lower, you can search online.
Typically, a router requires about 15 watts of power to operate, so we'll consume 15 watts per hour, which is quite low. During the day, we'll consume 0.36 kilowatt hours, which is quite low. It's also true that this 15 watts is the maximum, and under extreme stress, consumption is naturally lower and fluctuates depending on the usage we apply to it.
- Visit the energy distributor's website.
Another option is to access the energy supplier's website. There, you can view your real-time consumption. It's like a consumption meter, but for the entire house. All you can do is see how much you're using at any given time, with your router and repeater turned off, and compare it to when they're turned on.
The result won't be as accurate as a consumption meter, but you can get an approximate measurement. However, we recommend testing it several times to obtain more accurate average values.
- Use the consumption meter
You can also use a consumption meter. Many smart plugs have this feature. It analyzes how much you're using at any given time, as well as showing you long-term information so you can see, for example, how much a particular appliance has used over the course of a day, week, month, etc.
This is interesting for analyzing the consumption of devices you use daily. This can be particularly interesting if you change something in the settings. In the case of a router and repeater, consumption will be very linear.