Fact or fiction: Eight Mac energy-saving techniques tested
We’re all interested in saving energy. Maybe you conserve to be a better global citizen or to save money on your utility bills. Maybe you use your laptop on the go and want to squeeze every possible minute of battery life out of it. But what if the daily computing practices you follow to save energy end up wasting it instead? What if your assumptions about Mac power usage are wrong? To investigate this possibility, Macworld’s lab compiled a list of eight widely held opinions about energy conservation, grabbed our trusty power meters, and started logging power usage.
We used two systems: a 2011 21-inch iMac and a 2011 15-inch MacBook Pro. We connected them to a Watt’s Up Pro power meter equipped with a USB connection that allowed us to capture energy usage logs while we ran various tests. Here’s what we found out.
1. ‘Laptops use less energy than desktops.’
The iMac we tested averaged around 83W with the screen set to full brightness, and with Bluetooth and WiFi enabled. That’s six times more than the 13.4W that the MacBook Pro drew at similar settings when fully charged. When the MacBook Pro’s battery was at a 50 percent charge and plugged in, however, our 15-inch laptop drew 80W, just about the same as the iMac.
Takeaway: Over the course of a day, laptops do use less energy than desktops.
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