We recently had a few customers wondering about the power consumption of the ATMs. It seems to be a common thought that the ATM is a “power-hungry” item and that if they have an ATM installed the electrical costs will be somewhat of a financial burden on their business.
We reached out to the folks at GenMega to see what they had to say about how much power the typical retail ATM consumes and this was their response:
The layman’s answer would be that it uses no more power than a home computer. The energy consumption is fairly low because everything is running on a simple CE board. The only thing that actually uses a lot of power is the cash dispenser, and printer, and the time dispensing the cash or printing receipts is minimal. When the ATM is actually dispensing cash it might use more electricity, but that time is so minimal – we are looking at less than a second each time the ATM gets used.
– When the ATM is idle (99.9% of the time) it’s using 25 watts of power.
– When ATM is dispensing cash or printing receipts (0.1% of the time) it’s using 180 watts of power.
To put that in comparison, your average TV uses between 50-200 watts of power.
What are the electrical requirements for an ATM?
The ATM uses standard 110AC power. All that is required is a single electrical plug with 3-prongs (line, neutral, and ground leads). A 5 amp circut is recommend. A dedicated circuit is not required. Many things, including the ATM can be on the same circuit. Use of a surge protector or uninterruptible power supply is recommended.
From GenMega’s Operator Manual:
POWER REQUIREMENTS
110/220 VAC ± 10%, 50/60 Hz, 145 Watts