Any device you connect to electricity will have an impact on your electricity bill each month. It doesn’t matter if it is a simple LED bulb or a high-consumption stove. Logically, there can be important differences depending on what device you are going to connect. In this article we are going to focus on Bluetooth consumption. Could it be a significant expense or, on the contrary, will it be insignificant? We are going to tell you everything you need to know.
First of all, it must be noted that this technology is very present in all types of devices. For example, you can have a television with Bluetooth, a remote control or speaker that you connect and also use this wireless technology, a mobile phone, etc. In all these cases, it will involve an energy cost.
How much does Bluetooth cost?
You should know that the electricity consumption of Bluetooth is small. However, it will depend on the version. Older versions have a higher energy consumption. On the other hand, the most recent ones will consume much less and are less likely to be a problem for your bill.
If we are strict, we can say that whenever you turn off Bluetooth you will save energy. For example, you can deactivate it on television, mobile phone, computer or any other device. Now, if we analyze the cost of the most current versions of Bluetooth, that consumption will be between 0.01 and 0.05 W. To give you an idea, an LED bulb can use about 10 W.
As you can see, the use of this technology will not involve a significant expense in electricity. If you use an old version, then it can be around 1 W of consumption. It is much more than the most recent version and, in that case, it is more interesting to turn it off whenever possible and save energy.
Especially, if that Bluetooth connection is not active, consumption will be quite low. You will not have an excessive expense and, therefore, it will not affect the total monthly bill much. It is better that you save by other means.
It all adds up to phantom consumption
However, anything you have connected, even if it is in Stand By, will contribute to what is known as phantom consumption. For example, it is having the television connected with the red LED always on, a charger plugged in, an appliance connected, etc. Everything is going to involve an expense, even if it is little.
This phantom consumption is estimated to be over 10% of the total bill. If you start cutting back, if you start disconnecting everything you don’t need, you will be able to save on your electricity bill. You are going to spend that 10% less, in many cases. The objective is to be able to better control spending. If you use home automation, it can be a great help. You could even connect two routers and improve the signal.
As you can see, Bluetooth is not something that is going to excessively affect the electrical consumption of your home. Yes, it is true that everything adds up to what is known as phantom consumption, but really for Bluetooth devices, the fact of having it activated or not is not going to represent a visible change.
