Is it worth turning off the WiFi router at night?

We’ll tell you roughly how much money you’ll save if the router isn’t running at night.

Hardly any household lacks it and it usually runs day and night: the WLAN router. But how much money can be saved if you switch off the router at night, for example automatically using a timer?

It is not possible to make general statements about this, because it depends on the exact device and your electricity price in each individual case. However, the dimensions in which you can move around can be quite narrowly defined. That’s exactly what we do in this article.

Apart from switching it off completely, there are other ways to reduce the power consumption of your router, such as automatically switching the WLAN on and off using a schedule. In the case of the popular Fritz!Box you will find a suitable article with tips under this link:

➡️ Power consumption with the FritzBox – 7 helpful tips to save money

How much electricity does a WiFi router use?

Most devices are in the range of five to 15 watts. In certain cases, such as when there is a high load due to many connected end devices and a heavily used bandwidth, it can be up to 30 watts, but this is not the norm.

According to our measurements, a Fritz!Box 7560 is around seven to eight watts under low load from end devices. If a download is started with a high bandwidth, it is ten to eleven watts.

How expensive is electricity currently?

As can be seen in the picture below, the Federal Statistical Office states that the electricity price in Germany averages 34.96 cents per kilowatt hour:

Significantly higher costs are not possible for private households and smaller companies at the same time, since the electricity price brake takes effect from 40 cents and the costs are capped (for the basic requirement of 80 percent of historical consumption, usually measured against the previous year).

How much money can be saved if the router is off at night?

To answer this question, we assume three different scenarios:

1. Shutdown for eight hours (e.g. from 10:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m.)
2. Shutdown for seven hours (e.g. from 11:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m.)
3. Shutdown for six hours (e.g. from 12:00 p.m. to 6:00 a.m.)

We also set the power consumption at 10 watts and the electricity price at 0.35 cents, resulting in the following calculations:

1. 10 watts * 8 hours of running time at night * 365 days a year = 29,200 watt hours = 29.2 kilowatt hours * 0.35 euros per kilowatt hour = 10.20 euros saved on electricity costs per year
2. 10 watts * 7 hours of running time at night * 365 days a year = 29,200 watt hours = 29.2 kilowatt hours * 0.35 euros per kilowatt hour = 8.82 euros saved on electricity costs per year
3. 10 watts * 6 hours of running time at night * 365 days a year = 29,200 watt hours = 29.2 kilowatt hours * 0.35 euros per kilowatt hour = 7.67 euros saved on electricity costs per year

The formula can be easily adapted to your individual case by adjusting the appropriate values. For example, if you switch off the router for nine hours and have a device with a higher power consumption of 15 watts and electricity costs of 40 cents per kilowatt hour, you save 19.71 euros.

Are there any disadvantages?

Possible disadvantages can arise if some of your devices download updates primarily at night or outside of typical usage times. In most cases, however, it should be possible to do this outside of the night without any problems.

If constant availability via landline is important to you and the corresponding solution depends on your router, it is also recommended, as mentioned at the beginning, to only automatically switch off the WLAN in the router, which is possible with most devices using the setup software.

Last but not least, an extensively equipped and configured smart home may not get along well with a router that is completely switched off at night. If the (manageable) sums above appeal to you enough, if in doubt, try it out.

By the way, you can find out how high the standby power consumption of all sockets in a household can be in this article:

Have you ever thought about completely switching off your WLAN router at night or is the savings potential too small for you? Are there other power guzzlers in your household that you have tamed in a similar way, such as by using a timer? And how concerned are you with the topic of saving energy in general? Feel free to write it in the comments!