Laptops are highly optimized (hardware and software) and consume less energy than their desktop counterparts. An average consumer-grade laptop can consume between 20-60 Watts . Gaming laptops and power workstations can consume up to 100 Watts and beyond . This is much better than old generation laptops from the late 90s and early 20’s when laptops were not common and were consuming energy like giants.
Things have moved on and technology has advanced. Now, modern laptops are highly optimized for performance and power consumption. Hardware designers take care of this optimization by designing efficient circuits/logic, whereas firmware running on those devices is optimized for resource utilization. Low consumption and eco-friendly laptop have been the mantra of most of the tech giants because these big companies are usually criticized for their e-waster. Bringing these highly optimized and environment-friendly products to the market, they not only increase their revenue but also use “eco-friendly” as a marketing tactic.
This is now clear that “How many watts a laptop consumes?” but one question is still answerable i.e. “ How do laptops consume energy?” In this post, I have answered both questions in detail and how to optimally use your laptop for better energy consumption and improve your laptop’s life span.
Laptop Power Consumption Factors
As mentioned in the preamble that laptops are much intelligent on energy consumption. Four main factors determine the power consumption of a given Laptop
- Laptop Operation Temperature and Humidity level : like all other consumer products. Laptops are designed to operate within their temperature and humidity level limits. If you go beyond these operational ranges, then your Laptop might consume more power.
- External devices connected with the Laptop can constantly draw energy from the Laptop, and the laptop battery might dry out soon.
- Laptop Cleanliness, especially Fans: A dirty laptop consumes more energy as the build-in fan might not be working properly. This also heats up your laptop and increases the device temperature with environmental and health hazards.
- Power consumed by Internal components (CPUs and GPUs). If you own a Gaming or Power Workstation, then your laptop might have power-consuming CPUs and GPUs. Go through your laptop specification, and you will know these numbers exactly from CPU and GPU manufacturers. Budget and lower end laptops uses less power consuming CPUs and Graphics Cards and hence those laptops have lower power consumption limit.
How to calculate the wattage consumed by a laptop?
Now, we know the exact factors contributing to the wattage consumption of a laptop. Although, one can calculate that wattage consumption by reading the laptop manual but let’s have a look into some of the common methods to calculate the wattage consumed by a laptop.
Manual calculation
Manual methods refer to looking at the data provided by laptop manufacturers. I am writing this article on Lenovo P51 ThinkPad, and its specifications tell that the charger is delivering 170Watts (20V, 8.5A). You will be able to find similar specifications from your laptop supplier. Look at the battery or charger and it will be there.
In the manual method, you can look for the energy consumption by individual component i.e. wattage required by GPU, Wattage required by HardDisk/SSD, wattage required by CPU, and others. Here are some of the common energy consumptions.
| Component | Energy Consumption |
|---|---|
| CPU | 45W – 50W |
| GPU | 75W – 80W |
| Screen Brightness | 0.5W – 15W |
| DDR4 RAM | 2-3 W |
| SSD | 5W |
Electricity Usage
Most of us have studied electricity calculations formulas in high school (ah those old and gold high school years). You can use them to estimate the wattage by yourself. The good news is that you do not need to remember those formulate, and there are online tools that can calculate for you, for free. Here, energy values are read from the laptop/charged/battery manual and then fed into the formula to calculate the energy consumed by these devices.
Hardware Gadgets
If you are serious about knowing the exact wattage used by your laptop then you should rely on an electricity usage monitor. These gadgets are available on most hardware stores and on Amazon. One good point of these gadgets is that you can use them to measure the water and electricity consumption of other consumer equipment and devices at your home.
Installing these gadgets is very easy. You just need to insert them in between your device and the socket (energy outlet). These devices come with a built-in display that will show your the water and other relevant information. As the world is moving towards the “Internet of the Things”, these gadgets are becoming common are area also programmable.
Reduce Laptop Power Consumption
How to reduce laptop power consumption is a very common question. First and foremost, you should always follow the user manual and suggestions from your laptop manufacturer. These manuals include lab-tested results to suggest optimal operations. The following list suggests some methods to improve your battery usage and lower laptop power consumption. I have tested these methods for more than 15 years, and they work great.
- Enable Sleep Mode on your Laptop
- Unplug your laptop when not using
- Use a 40/80 rule (keep your batter between 40%-80%)
- Modern batteries are smart enough. Don’t wait till it is empty and charge them when required.
- Keep your laptop cool. You can use cooling pads.
- Keep your laptop clean. Take extra care of the laptop fan.
- Use Genuine Charger as they regulate the energy properly.
- Use adequate RAM and Harddisk.
- Avoid CD Drives, if possible.
Conclusion
A typical laptop has 20-60 Watts usage and gaming laptops go several times more. Now, you should be able to know it by following our guide. Although you might not need it to measure that much accurately, you can use hardware gadgets to measure the exact usage. You can also follow some of the methods to reduce laptop power consumption as we have mentioned in our list.
Frequently Asked Questions
Does it matter what wattage a laptop charger is?
Laptop Wattage refers to the amount of energy draws and used by that machine. In short, your charger should provide more than the minimum wattage required by the laptop. I tested this with the 170 Watt charger of ThinkPad P51, which was working fine with the 65Watt requirements of ThinkPad T450s.
Does a laptop consume less energy than a standard desktop?
A laptop consumes 80% less energy than its desktop counterparts. The exact amount of energy consumption laptops depends on Graphics Cards and Processing power. In general, most consumer-grade laptops consume 20-50 Watts whereas Gramming laptops can use double this amount.
Which Laptop uses more wattage: Basic Laptop vs Gaming Laptop?
Gaming Laptops consume more wattage due to their enormous requirements of computing and visualization.
How many watts does a 15.6-inch laptop consume?
On average they consume 60 Watts but this is not a final answer as this value varies with the type of processor and graphics card used. For example, 15.6inch workstation laptops from Lenovo-Thnkipad or Fujitsu use way more power than this 60 Watt Limit.
What is the total Wattage in a 17-inch Laptop?
Using the tests and review data from more than 65 different models, we found that most of them use 90 Watts but some business machines also use 135 Watts.
Does Laptop Wattage Differ for different brands such as Apple, ASUS, Thinkpad, HP, etc?
The obvious answer is No. Under the hood, they all use similar components (processors, graphics cards, fans, etc.) and their power consumption remains the same. However, these companies use smart algorithms to reduce this power consumption.
How many watts does a gaming laptop use?
As a gamer, you always look for a top-end laptop. A Gaming laptop is a power-consuming horse with high-end graphic cards. Since the energy consumed by these graphics cards varies between different versions, one should first look into their spec sheets for detailed calculations. These laptops can consume the energy of around 180W.
How many watts does the Apple MacBook consume?
Macbooks come in different sizes. A 13-inch consumes 61 Watt whereas a 15-inch consumes 87 Watts.
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