How Many Watts Does A Laptop Use? Look For Answers

A standard laptop generally consumes around 20W to 100W of electricity!

However, exactly how many watts of electricity does a laptop use depends on plenty of factors. It is dependent on whether you have a habit of playing a bunch of games as well as the number of hours you tune in every day. Typically, laptop power consumption is lower than that of desktop computers.

These factors determining energy consumption of a laptop, are dependent on the graphics card, the processor, memory, display time, and data transmission. For example, standard CPUs use between 65 and 85 watts, while powerful CPUs, like quad-core processors used in a high-end laptop, range from 95 to 140 watts. Thus, as a general rule, power consumption of gaming laptops, with high-end graphics card, are always higher than a general laptop.

Now, today we will be dissecting how much power does your laptop work with. We will also cover some of the hottest questions like how many watts does a laptop use when charging. So, stay tuned as we are going to break down every power aspect going on in your laptop.

Contents

How Many Watts Of Power Does A Laptop Use? Let’s Start With Some Standard Figures And Find Out
What Factors Influence Your Laptop’s Energy Consumption?
Some Tips That Will Make Your Laptop Last Longer!
Frequently Asked Questions:
Conclusion:

How Many Watts Of Power Does A Laptop Use? Let’s Start With Some Standard Figures And Find Out

Specific Condition	Watt Consumption
When the laptop is off and the battery is disconnected	1W
When the laptop is off and the display is set to sleep	1W
When the laptop is off and the battery is charging	63W
When the laptop is on and set to idle on windows desktop	15W
When the screen is set to minimum brightness	11W
When the screen is set to maximum brightness	15W
When the hard drive is sleeping	14W

What Factors Influence Your Laptop’s Energy Consumption?

1. Laptop’s Specification

A laptop doesn’t necessarily consume an ample amount of power unless you take it to its extreme. The power consumption in a basic laptop is between 20-50 watts and is easily manageable.

However, the major conflict arises when you have a gaming laptop but you still want to save some power. The chances of this happening are going to extremely slim. The reason is that a gaming laptop consumes 130-185 watts of power on average.

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2. CPU engagement and Type

CPU is at the core of everything which is happening inside your laptop. It is a common assumption that a quad-core is going to consume greater watts than a dual-core does. Thus a high-end CPU will have more power consumption than a low end one. Moreover an AMD processor is not only slightly less expensive than an equivalent intel processor, the watts consumed by AMD processor are also significantly lower.

Not only this, but if you occasionally run high-end games and software on your laptop computers this sort of CPU engagement will also aid in more electricity usage.

3. Graphics Card

A high-performance graphics card sure adds to your gaming experience. However, it comes with a cost! Yes, a high-end graphics card sucks the electricity out of your adapter like nothing else does.

When you have a high-end NVIDIA graphics card installed on your laptop, you should know that your laptop will consume a greater amount of electricity to power those crystal clear visuals. Thus a high-end GPU shall have a significantly more power consumption than a regular home laptop.

So, if you are a gaming fanatic you should know that your gaming laptop is going to consume a massive amount of electricity in comparison to a basic laptop, and hence your electricity costs are bound to be higher than standard laptops. Thus while a MacBook may consume 60 watts per hour, a popular gaming laptop, like Acer Predator Helios 300, may consume up to 180 watts per hour!

4.Cooling Pad

Cooling pads typically run on power drawn through one of the laptop’s USB ports. Does the cooling pad drain the battery? Yes it does! That said, it doesn’t drain it faster than one might think. Though, on average, cooling pads consume only 2 to 3 watts, external models of cooling pads may drain a laptop battery two to 10 percent faster, depending on the laptop’s and cooling pad’s regular power consumption.

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Some Tips That Will Make Your Laptop Last Longer!

There are ample ways to make your laptop last throughout the day. With a few tweaks like putting your monitor to sleep or switching on power-saving mode, you can make your laptop’s battery more efficient and work without any hassle. Below are some of the tips that will come in handy!

1. Timely Unplug Your Laptop Charger

Often we do not pay attention to our laptop and we leave it plugged when it is fully charged. All the extra electricity that you are wasting is also affecting your battery life. So make a habit of never leaving your power supply plugged in when your battery is fully charged.

2. Shutdown The Laptop When It Is Sitting Idle

The answer to your query that how many watts does a laptop use when on but not active depends on how often do you leave it on. Occasionally, your laptop uses around 15W of power when it is sitting idle. Make sure that your laptop is always shut down when you are running for a coffee break or attending to a friend.

3. Take Advantage Of Laptop’s Energy Saving Options

Isn’t it nice to have a laptop that consumes less energy and has a healthy battery that lasts way longer than expected? Well, for this you will have to make some tweaks to the energy-saving options in your laptop. Just check out the energy-saving settings and set your laptop according to those settings. You will ultimately feel that your laptop’s battery is dramatically improved.

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Frequently Asked Questions:

1. How many watts does a 17-inch laptop use?

17-inch laptops usually have 90 watts adapters. There are a lot of factors that play a part in determining how much power a 17-inch laptop uses. These factors are your graphics card, memory, CPU and display time, etc.

However, all else being equal, the bigger screen size of your laptop would typically consume 30% more number of watts than your standard 14-inch laptop.

2. Is it ok to leave a laptop plugged on all the time?

While it doesn’t necessarily cause any long-term damage to your laptop, there might be some repercussions of leaving your laptop plugged in all the time. Not only will it drain power even when the laptop is off, but your battery’s health might also get degraded, besides adding to your cost of electricity.

3.Is it better to shut down your laptop or leave it in SLEEP mode?

Shutting down your laptop is better when you’ve finished your work and don’t need the laptop for a longer duration, like over the weekend. It’s good to do too, especially if you haven’t shut it down for a few days. The longer your computer is on, the more programs, apps, and background processes will be running and hence consuming power. So better turn the laptop off if you are not using it for extended periods.

4. Is it better to use the laptop on power or battery?

It is better to use your laptop on battery because laptops are designed to function this way. When you are using your laptop directly on the power you might face a sudden power outage issue. This will cause your laptop to suddenly shut down, and you will lose your unsaved data.

5. What makes a laptop battery last longer?

One of the ways of making your laptop battery last longer is to use it on the low screen brightness. Besides, you should also change your display settings so that it turns off after a certain period of non-use.

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Conclusion:

We can say that that a better machine, a high-end laptop, not only costs more to buy, but also generally consumes higher wattage! However, the use of simple tricks and habits can help you know your laptop’s electricity consumption better.

You can make adjustments and use it efficiently without draining its battery unnecessarily. You should surely check out some tips that I have talked about above at “Some Tips That Will Make Your Laptop Last Longer”!

.These tips will be like a helping hand in protecting your laptop’s battery from degrading. In addition, these hacks will also lower the electricity consumption of your laptop.