EE1100 Introduction to Electrical

and Computer Engineering

Lab Report #2: Cell Phone Energy
Laboratory Team Members: John Nguyen Lecture Section #003, Hrishab Lecture Section #003
Instructor: James M. Florence
Date: October 13, 2019

Abstract

In this lab, we wanted to evaluate how much energy is being used to charging our cell phones. We will
be using an iPhone 8 model and an iPhone XS Max model to measure our data. By using the Kill A Watt
AC power monitor, the USB power monitor, and monitoring the charging status every 10 minutes, we
were able to make our conclusion on how much energy is being used to charge our cell phones.
 Introduction

The objective of this lab is to evaluate how much energy is being used to charge mobile cell phones,
specifically the iPhone 8 and the iPhone XS Max developed by Apple. To do this, we will use the Kill A
Watt AC power monitor and a USB power monitor.

There are three essential equations that we will be using to evaluate our calculations:

AC Energy into charge = (AC Power) * (Time)

USB Energy into phone = (USB Power) * (Time)
Charge efficiency = (USB Power) / (AC Power)

Written into words, the first equation essentially states that the AC energy of the charge is equal to the
AC power (measured by the AC power monitor) multiplied by the time. The USB energy into the phone
is equal to the USB voltage power, measured using the USB Power monitor, multiplied by the time.
Finally, the charge efficiency is equal to the USB power, measured by the USB Power Monitor, divided
by the AC Power, measured by the AC power monitor.

AC voltage is short for alternating current, which is notably different from direct current (DC).
Alternating current periodically reverses direction, which is different from direct current, which travels
in one specific direction. Therefore, in AC current in a wire will be forced away from the wire’s center,
towards the outer surface, unlike the direct current that will flow uniformly through each cross section
of a wire. AC current is typically represented as a sine wave, compared to the straight line of a DC
current.

Alternating current is most commonly found in electric power plugged into a wall socket or charger.
Therefore, the power measured in the phone will be in AC and not DC.
 Procedure

To perform this lab investigation, we will be using a Kill A Watt AC power monitor, a USB power
monitor, the iPhone 8, the iPhone XS Max and the Apple iPhone Lightning Charger. The Kill A Watt AC
power monitor will be used to monitor the amount of AC power that is being put into the wall adapter.
The USB Power Monitor will be used to monitor the amount of AC Power that is being put into the
charger. One should note that there is a difference because the wall adaptor and the charger will take
different amounts of power that is in turn being translated into the overall power that the phone will
be taking in.

We will plug in Apple Certified iPhone Charger into the Kill A Watt to determine if there is any current
with the phone not plugged in. This will help ensure most reliable data. If there is any current being
drawn with the phone not plugged in, we will note the value of the AC Line Voltage Current and Power
from the Kill A Watt. Then we will plug in the USB Power monitor into the charger as shown in Figure 1.
We expect our setup to have the Kill A Watt power monitor connected to the wall adapter connected
to the USB power monitor connected to the iPhone USB charger connected to the iPhone 8.

Figure 1 – The Kill A Watt connected to the wall charger connected to the USB power monitor
connected to the USB charger connected to the phone

After noting the percent charge level for the iPhone at the beginning of these measurements, we will
plug in the cell phone to the USB monitor output port. We will take note of the AC Line Voltage, the
Current, and the Power going into the charge. Then we will also take note of the USB voltage output
and the current going into the cell phone, as shown in Figure 2.
 Figure 2 – USB Voltage output and current going into phone

Finally, we will need to find the time it takes to charge the phone, the final component needed to make
calculations from the equations listed above. To determine the time, we will find a time where we can
monitor the iPhone 8 being charged from a very low charge to fully charged, setting aside a 1-2 hour
time gap. During this time, we are not going to use the phone while charging. We first will make note
of the charge at the beginning of the test and then observe the percent charge after that for every 10
minutes as shown in Figure 3.

Time (minutes) Percent Charged

… …

Figure 3 – Table of values

We will continue this process of monitoring and recording the percent charge every 10 minutes until
the battery has reached at least 95% charged, where we will then conclude that the battery has been
sufficiently charged.

We will then repeat the steps taken above for the iPhone XS Max, plugging in the charger to the Kill A
Watt Power Monitor and the USB Power Monitor and taking appropriate observations. Then we will let
the battery drain like before and measure its charging speed from 0 percent to roughly 100 percent.
This data will then be record in the table like shown in Figure

Then we will consider our data taking process to be complete because that point, we will have the AC
Power, the USB Power, and the Time (it takes to charge the phone from 0% to roughly 100%). We
expect results for iPhone 8 and iPhone XS Max to be more or less the same.
 Results
After following the appropriate procedures described above, we obtained the following table of values
for the iPhone 8, as shown in Figure 4.

Time Percent Charge

0 15
10 24
20 33
30 42
40 51
50 59
60 67
70 75
80 80
90 90
100 95
Figure 4 – Completed Table of Values for iPhone 8

The AC Power is 6.5 watts and the DC power in the wall is (5.09)(0.99) = 5.0391. Therefore, because
5.0391/6.5 is 0.775246154, the percent efficiency is 77.52%.

The corresponding graph is displayed in Figure 5.

Percent Charged Over Time (iPhone 8)

120

100
Percent Charged

80

60

40

20

0
0 20 40 60 80 100 120
Time (minutes) y = 0.8064x + 17.045

Figure 5 – Graph of the percent charged over time for iPhone 8

As we can see, there is a linear relationship with an equation of y = 0.8064x + 17.045.

The same procedure was repeated for the iPhone XS Max, as shown in Figure 6.
Time Percent
0 7
10 22
20 37
30 50
 40 63
50 72
60 81
70 90
80 97
Figure 6 – Completed Table of Values for iPhone XS Max

The AC Power is 6.5 watts and the DC power in the wall is (5.09)(1.01 amps) = 5.12 watts. Therefore,
because 5.12/6.5 = 0.7909, the energy efficiency is 79.09%.

The corresponding graph for the iPhone XS Max is shown in Figure 7.

Percent Charged Over Time (iPhone XS Max)

120

100
Percent Charged

80

60

40

20

0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Time (min)

Figure 7 –Graph of percent charged over time for iPhone XS Max

As we can see, there is a linear relationship with an equation of y = 1.1233x + 12.733.

 Discussion and Conclusions

In conclusion we set up two phones an iPhone 8 and iPhone XS <ax, came to conclude that the Percent
Charge and Time are directly proportional. This means that the more time you charge a phone, the
higher the percent charge. We also concluded that both the phones had different charging rate as the
iPhone XS Max was fully charged 20 mins before the iPhone 8 could be fully charged. This means that
one of the phones battery is more efficient than the other one.

In specific terms, the iPhone 8 had an efficiency of 77% while the iPhone XS Max had an efficiency of
79.90%. This explains why the iPhone XS Max was fully charged 20 minutes before the iPhone 8 and
why the iPhone XS Max’s linear graph has a steeper slope. Comparatively, the iPhone XS Max has a
slope of x = 1.1233x while the iPhone 8 has a slope of x = 0.8064x.

References/Appendices

Bhargava, N. N., et al. Basic Electronics and Linear Circuits. Tata McGraw-Hill, 2013.