I have been looking for reliable data on the global power consumption of modern communication for some time. Alternatively also throughout Germany or Europe.
Most of the time you only read the electricity demand of the internet itself, our cell phone, laptop and even the PC, on the other hand, need little electricity, but in the sum of all devices this should also be considerable.
The short service life of the technology and the high energy consumption in production are also worrying.
Who knows reliable data on this?
So how much total electricity you use can be easily read off the meter using kw
Just look at it every 24 hours, over a week.
The performance of the individual devices can be seen on the power supply unit, there's always a watt and voltage. This only has to do with the network indirectly, the consumption of the battery can be higher.
Technology can't last for the simple reason that there's always new hardware, better ones.
Try using floppy xD nowadays and you'll understand why it was sorted out.
How much it costs to manufacture a single battery can be safely read on the Internet.
So you can generally calculate power consumption by looking at the power supply.
Why short lifespan?
Computers last 5-15 years (depending on the application) and most parts can then be recycled.
Good cell phones last between 5-7 years. And can then also be taken to collection points. (To get the valuable metals out of the technology again)
But if you know how much electricity a laptop / PC / mobile phone consumes in production, I would be interested in that too, do you have more information? I don't think so much though.
I'm not sure what you want to hear.
"The Internet" is, for example, not a device that you just plug into a socket.
This consists of countless servers / gateways and other infrastructure devices,
plus their backup systems and the whole world.
If you want, you can also add the Internet via cellular network or even satellite.
I think you have to specify the question…
but in the sum of all devices this should also be considerable.
To do this, you have a device called a meter in the fuse box - or you can check your electricity bill.
The whole thing is also available as an adapter, then you can measure every single device.
Here, too, it is impossible to make a detailed general statement.
There should still be households that (have to) heat with electricity.
Their consumption is likely to be much higher than that of someone who heats with oil / gas or district heating.
The short lifespan of the technology is also worrying
What would a 'long' lifespan be?
Or are you talking about operating time?
and the high energy consumption in production
this, too, is so general that it can't be answered.
I don't care what my computer uses.
My PV system produces a gigantic 16 megawatts / year. I don't have any energy storage and therefore have to continue to draw electricity from the energy supplier, especially at night, but I get more money for the electricity I sell than I have to pay myself.
I have to find out how much energy is used worldwide for computers and the like.
The energy consumption for the manufacture of the PC + monitor consumes about as much CO2 as 85 trees store / year
in KW / h 2790 kw / h
Economical PCs only use 88kw / h / per year
i.e. One can assume that a PC consumes more energy in production than it consumes during its lifetime.
Source: https://rehab-republic.de/energieschluckende-produktion/#:~:text=Energieverbrauch%20der%20Computerherstellung%20enorm&text=Rund%202.790%20kWh%20Energie%20verbraucht,sogar%20mit%20unter%2030%20kWh.
Whether this is true is always a bit questionable but not completely ruled out.
To recycle the valuable metals in your cell phone
This leaves less than 1 gram for recycling. In a report it said that the rest of the raw materials are thermally recycled. At best, thermal utilization means that heat is obtained in waste incineration plants as district heating etc. And hopefully a large part of the toxins can be filtered out.
I think this is relatively plausible and reliable:
https://www.musterhaushalt.de/durchschnitt/stromverbrauch/2/
'Useful for other purposes
But it is not about the electricity of the households but purely communication, including the Internet server.
