ARLINGTON, Va., Sept. 27, 2012 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Americans can expect to pay $0.41 a year to charge the iPhone5, according to research from Opower, the global leader in customer engagement solutions for the utility industry. That equates to 3.5 kilowatt hours per year. In comparison, charging the Samsung Galaxy S III costs slightly more at $0.53 a year, primarily because of the Galaxy's larger battery.
For the average smartphone users, those costs are negligible. However, the magnitude of electricity quickly increases based on the number of smartphones across the globe; this year alone, Apple expects to sell 170 million iPhone 5's. Those 170 million smartphones will draw enough electricity to power all of the homes in Cedar Rapids, Iowa for a year.
Despite the rise in smartphone usage, overall energy consumption may decrease because:
1) People are using smartphones to do things that they have historically done on traditional devices like computers, televisions, and gaming consoles.
2) Smartphones, like the iPhone 5 and Galaxy S III, use much less energy than the larger devices (e.g. PC's, TV, game consoles) that they are displacing. An iPhone 5 requires 20 times less energy to operate than a typical laptop – and 100 times less energy than a typical 42-inch plasma TV.
"Put simply, a day spent web-surfing and Facebooking on a smartphone or tablet is a much more energy-efficient day than doing the same on a computer," said Opower analyst and head writer Barry Fischer. "The rise of smartphones, like the iPhone 5, is likely to save energy in American homes as it diverts our time from using far less efficient consumer electronic devices."
You can read the full Opower Outlier analysis here: bit.ly/OVfPWm.
Energy data, provided by utility partners, is at the core of Opower's platform: the data allows Opower to give families context on how their energy use compares to similar neighborhood homes and insights into what actions could help them save energy – and save money. Opower works with more than 75 utilities in the US, UK and Canada, actively sends information to more than 14 million homes and analyzes information from more than 40 million homes. Outlier aggregates that energy data to develop insights about American energy consumption as a whole.
About Opower
Opower is the world's leading provider of customer engagement solutions for the utility industry. By providing the tools, information and incentives consumers need to make smarter decisions about their energy use, Opower's engagement platform and solution suite enables utilities to involve their customers in programs that support, energy efficiency goals, smart grid and new rate structures, brand loyalty and lowering the cost of service. Proven to drive behavioral change at scale, Opower has helped its utility partners achieve more than 1.4 TWHs of their energy efficiency goals, and drive significant increases in customer program participation and overall customer satisfaction. Founded in 2007 and privately held, Opower is headquartered in Arlington, Virginia, with offices in San Francisco and London. For more information, please visit www.opower.com">www.opower.com and follow us on Twitter at @Opower
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