How much does it cost to charge an iPhone? It's a question many of you Apple handset owners have probably asked yourself as you make your second trip of the day to the mains, cursing under your breath as you go. Well, the answer will definitely shock you.
But not in a bad way! There's no fear of adding a significant chunk to the iPhone's already lofty asking price just to keep it running. You can actually keep your iPhone charged for a year for less than £1. A lot less. We sh*t you not.
How? Well there's no trickery or wizardry here, that's just what it costs. Seriously. Let us explain the maths.
Related: iPhone tips and tricks you didn't know about
Currently, here in the UK, a kilowatt hour (kWh) of electricity will cost you around about 10 pence depending on your energy supplier. You can pay more or less depending on how savvy a shopper you are, but that's about the average.
Assuming you've not yet jump on the iPhone 7 bandwagon and have an iPhone 6S kicking about in your pocket, your phone will come bundled with a 5W charger and will be connected to the mains for a little over 100 minutes in order to take its 1715mAh battery from completely drained to fully charged.
As 5 watts is just 0.005 kilowatts, and conservatively it will take 1.7 hours per full charge, a complete reboot of your iPhone's energy supplies will suck 8.5W of electricity from the grid.
Given that a kilowatt of leccy will set you back 10p, that's a cost of 0.085p per charge: less than a tenth of a penny.
Related: iPhone 7 vs iPhone 6S
Assuming you fully charge your phone once a day – sure, sometimes it will be more, others less, most of the time it won't be in the red before you plug it in – that's an annual iPhone charge cost of 31.025p. Hell, let's call it 32p.
That's not per charge: that's per year. £0.32 for a full year of iPhone life – that £599 asking price isn't looking too bad now is it? Even if you're a hardcore phone addict who burns through two or more charges a day, you'll still get change from your quid come the end of the year.
