Charging the laptop at home or in the car makes life easy for people who constantly use it for their work routine. Sometimes you need to charge the laptop during travel. It raises the burning question of how many watts does a laptop charger use.
Using the wall circuit instead of an external adapter is more energy-efficient when charging your laptop at home. But what if you’re on the go and must charge your laptop in the car? The watts required to charge your laptop depending on its voltage and current requirements.
Although it’s commonly thought that laptops take a whole day to charge, it can take as little as 20 watts to recharge. It’s essential to know the specifics of your device and its charger to get the most out of your laptop’s charging capabilities.
Read on for the complete guide to learn more about charging your laptop and the various factors that impact charging speed and energy consumption. We’ll cover everything you need to know to keep your laptop charged and running smoothly, no matter where you are.
Table of Contents
How to Find the Laptop Charger Watts
There are many ways to find out your laptop charger’s watt. If you are confused about the exact watt numbers your charger is consuming, you can calculate it on your own; you only have to follow a few steps. Let’s get into them:
Method 1: Check the Power Brick of The Charger
One of the easiest ways to check the wattage of a laptop charger is to check its power brick.
On the power brick, find the word “W”; it will symbolize watts. When you see this symbol, try looking for the numbers next to it. The numbers you will see next to the symbol represent the watts of the laptop charger.
There is no need to worry if there is no symbol and numbers on the power back. It is uncommon that some companies forget to write the charger’s wattage on the power brick. But other ways can make you find the wattage of your laptop charger, so you can find that by following the following method.
Method 2: Calculate the Laptop Wattage
You can also find your laptop’s wattage by following this method; you only have to do some math to find the correct answer. Some laptops do not show wattage; you only see current and voltage. But if you need to see the wattage of your laptop charger, you can find it, you only need to do some math, and you will figure out the exact number of wattages.
Grab a calculator and a notebook and follow the steps to find out your laptop charger’s wattage:
- Open the power brick of your laptop.
- On the sticker of the power brick, find the
- Here, you will see the voltage and current of your laptop.
Multiply The Amperes and Volts
Now, by using the voltage and current of the laptop, you can find out the wattage of the charger. There is the simplest formula to find out wattage by putting the values:
Watts = Volts x Amperes
To make it easy for you, let’s take an example. Suppose your laptop’s voltage is 19.5, and 3.34 is the current output. You must put the voltage and current values into the formula and multiply both to get the wattage value.
After multiplying the 19.5 and 3.34, you will get a 65.13 answer considered as 65. Now, you have to do the same process by using your laptop’s voltage and current, and you will find the wattage of your laptop charger.
Method 3: Visit the Official Website
If you do not have enough time to calculate the wattage of your laptop charger, you can find it by visiting the official website of your charger company. Every charger company has complete details about their equipment and devices on their official website; you will find all the details about your charger’s wattage, voltage, and current.
If you did not find the wattage of the charger on the official website, don’t worry. Many other websites have the same chargers; you can search different tech platforms and find the wattage of your laptop.
Before searching for information about wattage and other things about your charger, remember that there is a lot of wrong information on various websites and forums.
How Many Watts Does the Charger Usually Use?
The United States department of energy’s most recent research on laptop power consumption tells us that most laptops use almost 50 watts of electricity for charging, equal to 5 kilowatt hours. According to the research, if your laptop is being used continuously for 8 hours daily, it will need 5p to keep running.
So, according to this research, laptop chargers use almost 50-watt power to charge the laptop. Different laptops usually take different numbers of watts to charge laptops. There are several laptops, each consuming different wattage, voltage, and current for getting charged.
Gaming Laptop Chargers
Gaming laptops are heavy-duty laptops, so they need heavy-duty chargers for charging. In return, it adds up the power consumption of the charger and laptop. Depending upon the heavy-duty specifications, gaming laptop chargers usually charge the laptops with 135-160 watts of power.
Standard Laptop Chargers
Daily laptops are common in offices, businesses, houses, and schools. They are very lightweight and easy to carry. These laptops usually have Round pin jack power or type C connector for charging, which helps the laptops to charge their lithium batteries. The bigger batteries do not have fast charging, but they still have a higher charging capacity of around 60-80W power through a charging adapter.
Apple MacBook Charger
If you are a MacBook user, these typical 13 inches MacBook chargers usually consume 61 watts to charge MacBooks. On the other hand, if you are wondering about 15 inches MacBooks, their chargers usually consume 87 watts per hour. So, if you are a MacBook user, you must know that their chargers do not consume many watts for charging like other standard and gaming laptops.
Factors That Affect the Power Consumption of Laptop Chargers
The manufacturers use energy-efficient tools and components to make their work efficient. But it does not mean that the laptops do not have any components or functions that are non-energy-consuming.
There are a lot of functions and consumers that make the system use high power or energy. The processor and Display are the top components that consume the most energy in the system. So, these factors also affect the charging system of laptops.
We use chargers to charge our laptops, so the laptop’s high-energy-consuming components take much time to recharge. So, as a result, the charger consumes more current, voltage, and wattage to provide the system. The components that make the laptop chargers consume more energy are Fan, Graphics card, WLAN Module, SSD/Hard disk, and RAM.
If you are using the latest laptop model with a multi-core processor heavily, it will consume more power or energy. As a result, the system will consume more energy, and the battery will run out within a few minutes. When you connect it with the charger, due to its heavy system, it will take more time to provide the required power and energy to run the system.
The wattage of the new high-end laptops increases to 60 watts or more. The graphics card is also the primary factor that affects the laptop charger’s power consumption. If any graphics card is in your laptop, the recharge will take longer than normal laptops.
Final Verdict
Powering up your laptop is essential, especially when using it frequently. As each laptop charger varies from one other, it is crucial to be aware of the wattage, voltage, and current your laptop charger requires.
This guide aims to equip you with comprehensive knowledge about your laptop charger, but if you still require further information, follow these simple steps to determine the wattage of your laptop charger.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is 100W Enough to Charge Laptop?
Yes, the power of 100W is enough to recharge your laptop. It does not matter which laptop you use; you can charge it just by consuming 100W energy.
Can A 20W Charger Be Used for Laptop?
No, you cannot charge your laptop by using the 20W charger. Every laptop has its charging requirement; you must use the equipment according to its requirement. You can charge your laptop at up to 65W with USB ports.
Does Charging Laptop Consumes a Lot of Electricity?
When you connect your laptop to a charger plugged into the wall, the laptop will start charging. During the charging process, the battery consumes 10-20 percent more. Every laptop charger is different than the others and has different wattage requirements. Few chargers consume less electricity; on the other hand, few chargers consume a lot of electricity to charge your laptops.
How Many Watts Does It Take To Charge A Laptop USB-C?
All the laptops that charge using the USB-C port use 60 watts of power. MacBook Pro USB-C chargers use about 87 watts, while the 16-inch and 14-inch MacBooks use 96 watts of power.