On February 1, electricity prices increased by 15% for the 21 million French households benefiting from the regulated tariff. An increase in prices which pushes to monitor its consumption, in particular that of its electronic devices. Le Monde has pulled out its calculator to assess the gluttony of the most common devices (see our methodology in box).
Devices equipped with a battery are designed to consume little. To reduce your energy consumption, they are therefore not, a priori, a priority target.
These consumption figures (in cents) are reassuring, even when extrapolating over a year. They vary a lot depending on the devices, and the use made of them, but they remain reasonable in all cases. On the smartphone side, for example, the electricity consumption of a model that consumes energy and is actively used for ten hours a day is capped at 3 euros per year. The cost of a particularly sober model and used with great parsimony can go down to 20 cents of electricity per year.
High-end smartphones are on average very slightly more greedy than low-end ones, with one notable exception: iPhones, which are particularly sober, according to Olivier Simon, director of batteries at DXOmark, a French laboratory for measuring the performance of electronic devices. “Apple smartphones have significantly better energy efficiency than Android smartphones,” he said.
Devices used while plugged into the mains, on the other hand, consume more than those equipped with a battery. Especially those used to play 3D games, such as the latest generation consoles.
Over a full year, three hours of daily gaming on a mid-range computer costs almost 90 euros, 24-inch screen included. On a high-end, latest generation console, it costs 36 euros, not including the energy consumed by the TV.
The power consumption of a television also increases when watching a film or series in HDR, a technology that displays brighter parts of the image to improve realism or visual impact. On VOD platforms, for example, many big-budget films and series are broadcast in this format.
Manufacturers regularly use this technology as a selling point, focusing their communication on the ability of their high-end televisions to restore a high light peak that does honor to HDR. But when they read this type of content, they commonly consume twice as much electricity. The increase in power demand is much more reasonable when HDR video is played by a low-end model: it is then significantly less by 50%.
The annual consumption of a television varies greatly depending on the model and the use made of it. According to our estimates, one hour of daily programs viewed in a darkened room with a small energy-saving device will cost around 5 euros per year. On the other hand, three hours of VOD, half of which in HDR, viewed in a room bathed in light (forcing to increase the brightness of the screen) and broadcast on a large gourmet television, can cost more than 50 euros per year.
Many devices, such as computer screens and televisions, consume very little power when left on standby. According to measurements from the British daily The Guardian, the overwhelming majority are satisfied with less than one euro of electricity per year on standby. However, some devices are bad students, such as virtual personal assistants.
Virtual personal assistants with a screen are set to stay on all the time. Their annual consumption is therefore not negligible. As for the latest generation consoles, they continue to consume too much when they are on standby.
Finally, regularly cited, the electricity consumption of Internet boxes is just as high, increased by the operation of their Wi-Fi antenna. A simple box thus consumes energy equivalent to more than half of that consumed by a single-door refrigerator, according to figures from the Environment and Energy Management Agency (Ademe).
