How much electricity does it cost me to have a virtual assistant?

Finding information, making a shopping list, scheduling reminders, listening to the song you want, controlling the lights, ordering a pizza... All this and much more can be done using voice-controlled devices like Amazon Echo and Google Home. You just have to ask them. They provide added convenience in your home, which explains why they have become so popular and their fans are growing by the day.

You’ll never be home alone again

Smart virtual assistants, like Alexa, OK Google, Siri and Cortana, are here to stay. We rely on them more and more to organise our lives and their arrival has given a definitive boost to the Internet of Things and home automation for all Everything that is connected to your home WiFi can be controlled through them.

How much does it cost to leave them on, instead of turning them on and off when we need them? Much less than you might think.

We are going to compare the cost of having a virtual assistant in your home using two of them, Amazon Echo and Google Home.

In fact, it is surprising how energy efficient these two are. On standby, i.e. when they are plugged in, switched on and connected to Wi-Fi, they consume between 2 and 4 W of electricity, depending on the model.

To understand better, with the cheap rates of One Luz, we would be talking about an annual cost of around €2.10 for small models and approximately €4.20 for large models. Looking at it by the month, they only add between €0.175 and €0.35 to your electricity bill, depending on the size.

"For just a few cents a month in electricity consumption, you can enjoy all their benefits.”

Does it cost the same when they are active and playing?

Surprisingly, their consumption is not much higher when they are telling you what the weather is going to be like or they are playing your favourite songs. There can be peaks of 10 W when the volume is very loud but the average power consumption is around 6 W.

Also, you don’t keep them in this state 24 hours a day. That is why we are going to calculate how much you add to your electricity bill by listening to 3 hours of music daily on your speakers, every day of the year.

Well, with an average consumption of 6 W, it would be about €0.78 a year. In other words, less than €0.06 per month.

This, of course, is the cost for one single device. Now, you should remember that it is increasingly common to have more than one smart speaker in the house. Many people have several Amazon Echo or Google Home speakers, and this is where it all starts to add up. It still won’t be much, however.

What about other connected devices?

There are hundreds of compatible devices that make your home smarter every day (and your life a little easier). From air conditioning thermostats to the TV, lighting, digital photo frames, locks and alarms, large and small electrical appliances... even plugs can be activated or deactivated by simply requesting it out loud.

This means that many of the appliances in your home will be permanently connected and waiting. This phantom consumption added to the bill should not worry us excessively, for the time being.

A smart thermostat can help save a lot of money on heating and air conditioning, and most modern appliances have greatly reduced their consumption in stand-by mode, especially TVs.