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Verizon FiOS Electricity Use

My house has Verizon FiOS. Part of the FiOS installation included the mounting of a Verizon network backup battery unit in the basement. I asked myself "how much electricity does this box use?"

Verizon FiOS: How much electricity does this cost me?


So I plugged in my awesome Kill-A-Watt electricity usage meter to find out.

My Kill-o-Watt watt meter reported that there was a 16 watt load on the circuit. And since Verizon's box is powered and plugged in 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, 16 watts would quickly add up to roughly 140 kilowatt hours per year:

calculation: 16 watts x 8760 hours per year ÷ 1000 = 140.16 KWH/Year

How much does 140 Kilowatt-hours cost in dollars and cents? Here's a table that shows how much that would cost per year based on recent residential electricity rates (source: DOE. State Electricity Profiles, 2006 Edition):

State ¢/KWH )
$/Year
Alabama 7.07
$9.91
Alaska 12.84
18.00
Arizona 8.24
11.55
Arkansas 6.99
9.80
California 12.82
17.97
Colorado 7.61
10.67
Connecticut 14.83
20.79
Delaware 10.13
14.20
Wash. DC
 11.08
15.53
Florida 10.45
14.65
Georgia 7.63
10.69
Hawaii 20.72
29.04
Idaho 4.92
6.90
Illinois 7.07
9.91
Indiana 6.46
9.05
Iowa 7.01
9.83
Kansas 6.89
9.66
Kentucky 5.43
7.61
Louisiana 8.3
11.63
Maine 11.8
16.54
Maryland 9.95
13.95
Massachusetts 15.45
21.65
Michigan 8.14
11.41
Minnesota 6.98
9.78
Mississippi 8.33
11.68
Missouri 6.3
8.83
Montana 6.91
9.69
Nebraska 6.07
8.51
Nevada 9.63
13.50
New Hampshire 13.84
19.40
New Jersey 11.88
16.65
New Mexico 7.37
10.33
New York 15.27
21.40
North Carolina 7.53
10.55
North Dakota 6.21
8.70
Ohio 7.71
10.81
Oklahoma 7.3
10.23
Oregon 6.53
9.15
Pennsylvania 8.68
12.17
Rhode Island 13.98
19.59
South Carolina 6.98
9.78
South Dakota 6.7
9.39
Tennessee 6.97
9.77
Texas 10.34
14.49
Utah 5.99
8.40
Vermont 11.37
15.94
Virginia 6.86
9.61
Washington 6.14
8.61
West Virginia 5.04
7.06
Wisconsin 8.13
11.40
Wyoming 5.27
7.39


Remember it is possible that the load put on the battery box circuit changes over time, and that your battery box may be different than the one in my house. Also note that this analysis doesn't include a FiOS router or your TV converter boxes. I can imagine that they each consume similar amounts of electricity, but more analysis would be necessary to find out.
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