Wi-Fi router and ONT: units per month in Pakistan
Short answer. A router drawing 10 watts continuously uses 0.24 units a day and about 7 units a month. Adding a fibre ONT and a mesh node roughly doubles that. It is a small but genuinely constant load — one of the few things in the house that never switches off.
Power draw
- Low: 5 W
- Typical: 10 W — the figure used in every calculation below
- High: 20 W
A domestic router is 6–10 W. A fibre ONT alongside it adds another 5–8 W, and a mesh system multiplies by the number of nodes.
Units and cost by usage pattern
Each row is 10 W × the hours shown ÷ 1,000, over 30 days. The three cost columns exist because the rupee cost of a unit depends entirely on which slab your month lands in — the same consumption costs a light user and a heavy summer household very different amounts. Rates are illustrative and not a substitute for the tariff table printed on your own bill.
| Usage pattern | Units / day | Units / month | At Rs 12.5/unit | At Rs 27.5/unit | At Rs 36/unit |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Continuous, as almost everyone runs it | 0.24 | 7.2 | Rs 90 | Rs 198 | Rs 259 |
Rate bands: Rs 12.5 — light user, protected (≈150 units/month); Rs 27.5 — average household (≈250 units/month); Rs 36 — heavy summer month (700+ units). This appliance runs all year, so the monthly figure applies in every cycle.
Small load, maximum hours
Ten watts sounds negligible, and per hour it is. But 8,760 hours a year turns it into around 88 units annually, which is more than a microwave or a blender contributes.
This is the mirror image of the blender: tiny power, maximum duty cycle. Both are instructive about why watts alone tell you nothing.
Switching it off overnight
Eight hours off a day saves about 2.4 units a month. Set against the reboot time, the interruption to anything scheduled overnight, and the wear on the equipment, it is rarely worth it.
Switching off a mesh system's unused nodes in rooms nobody uses is a better version of the same idea.
How to use less
- Switch off mesh nodes covering rooms that are not used.
- Do not leave a second, older router powered as a spare 'just in case'.
- If your connection has a UPS, remember the router is part of what sizes it.
Frequently asked questions
Should I turn my Wi-Fi router off at night to save electricity?
It saves roughly 2 to 3 units a month. That is real but small, and for most households the disruption outweighs it.
Compare with
- Laptop computer — 45 W typical
- Mobile phone charging — 18 W typical
- LED television — 90 W typical
Filed under electronics in the full appliance index. Add your own hours in the consumption calculator, or open your actual bill with the reference number lookup.