How much power does a cell phone signal booster use?

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Are you considering buying a cell phone signal booster? If you aren’t, you should. Unless of course you already own one. Cellular signal boosters are great additions to every home and office. For the price of about one mid-level phone, you can fill an entire home with great cell service. So many people experience bad cell reception every day. It’s universal. And yet over the years, I’ve wondered why more people don’t buy and install cell boosters.

Maybe they’re worried about power consumption.

Blogs like this one spend a lot of time talking about how powerful cell phone signal boosters are. Your typical one has a gain of over 70dB, meaning they amplify a signal 10,000,000 times before rebroadcasting it. That sounds like it would take a lot of power.

Maybe some of you are worried that a cell booster would make your electric bill spike up. After all, we tell you that they have super-powered amplifiers. Maybe that’s part of the problem.

Truth is you don’t have to worry.

Every cell booster is going to be different, but typically a cell booster will use about the same amount of power as a fast charger for a phone. In other words, something on the order of 10 watts or less. This means the power usage is about the same as one LED lightbulb.  Depending on your prevailing rates, you can count on that cell booster using… oh about $1 – $2 in electricity per year. So you can see there’s nothing to worry about.

How can that be?

How can cell boosters sip power in such a miserly way and still provide awesome amplification? The answer lies in the nature of cell signals themselves. Cell signals coming into your house are a few fractions of a watt. Amplifying them a bazillion times and rebroadcasting takes their output level to about a quarter of a watt. We’re talking very small amounts of electricity here. Operating the booster itself takes power as well, of course, leading up to the net power usage.

Most folks don’t realize how utterly weak cell signals are. Certainly, a lot of the fringe folks who think cell phones are rotting your brains don’t realize it. It’s true that the original cell phones used a lot of power, but today’s cell signals are very weak by comparison and generally accepted as safe.

Don’t be hung up by excuses

It’s time to stop putting up with bad cell service. It’s time to stop making silly excuses why you haven’t gotten a booster. If you can afford a premium phone, you can afford a booster. It will probably outlast your next five phones. It won’t add to your electric bill, it’s not hard to install, and it’s not going to hurt you or your phone. It’s just a good idea and my friend, the time has come. Shop now for cell phone signal boosters from Solid Signal. If you don’t know which one you need, call the experts! The number is 888-233-7563 and when you call you’ll get a tech who can answer all your questions. They’ll recommend the best booster for you!

About the Author

Stuart Sweet
Stuart Sweet is the editor-in-chief of The Solid Signal Blog and a "master plumber" at Signal Group, LLC. He is the author of over 10,000 articles and longform tutorials including many posted here. Reach him by clicking on "Contact the Editor" at the bottom of this page.