How-To

How to Manage Clean Energy Charging on iPhone

By Brian Burgess

Published May 25, 2023

A good way to manage your iPhone’s energy footprint is to use clean energy charging. You can manage this functionality using this guide.

If your iPhone is running iOS 16.1 or later, you can be environmentally friendly and reduce your carbon footprint by allowing your iPhone to only charge when low carbon emissions power is available.

The feature is enabled by default, and if you want to encourage the device to be green, it’s an excellent way to facilitate that. But there may come a time when you need to give your phone a quick battery boost with Fast Charging, for example, and want to disable the clean energy charging feature.

You can enable or disable the feature to manage clean energy charging on iPhone. Here’s how.

What is Clean Energy Charging on iPhone?

The clean energy charging feature on iPhone promises to reduce your carbon footprint by timing when your iPhone charges to align when lower carbon emission electricity is available. In addition, your phone will selectively charge when low carbon emissions electricity is available.

After you connect your phone to your charger and a power source, the phone receives a forecast of carbon emissions from your local energy grid. It uses the forecast to charge your phone during times of cleaner energy production. It also learns your charging routine to ensure that it reaches a full charge.

Currently, the feature is only available in the U.S. (Europe coming soon) and enabled by default on iOS 16.1 or above. So, you might want to control the setting using the following steps.

How to Enable or Disable Clean Energy Charging on an iPhone

If you want to manage the clean energy charging functionality on your iPhone, you’ve got the option to turn it on or off. Doing so is straightforward through iPhone settings.

To enable or disable clean energy charging on iPhone:

1. Sign into your iPhone and tap the Settings icon from the home screen.
2. Swipe down the Settings screen and tap the Battery option.
3. Select the Battery Health & Charging option.
4. Find the Clean Energy Charging option and toggle the switch off to disable it or toggle it on to reenable the feature.
5. When the confirmation message appears, select the Turn Off Until Tomorrow option or tap the Turn Off option to keep it off until you reenable it.
6. Of course, you can reenable it at any time in the future after disabling the feature. To do this, press Settings > Battery > Battery Health & Charging and toggle the Clean Energy Charging switch to the on position.

The clean energy charging feature works in conjunction with optimized battery charging to help you learn your device charging habits. The feature only engages where you spend the most time charging your iPhone for long periods, like at home or in your office.

It doesn’t work while charging in variable situations like a new location or traveling. So, some location settings must also be enabled for clean energy charging to activate. Additionally, Apple does not receive the location data for the clean charging.

How to Enable Location Data for Clean Energy Charging on iPhone

You’ll need to enable location data for clean energy charging to work properly on your iPhone. The enabled location settings will ensure the phone receives the carbon-emission forecast in your area and activate the clean energy charging feature.

To set location data for clean energy charging on your iPhone:

1. On your iPhone, navigate to Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services and make sure the feature is toggled on.
2. On your iPhone, navigate to Settings > Privacy & Security > Location services > System Services and ensure System Customization is enabled.
3. The last location option to enable is Significant Locations. To do it, open Settings > Privacy & Security > Location Services > System Services > Significant Locations and ensure the switch is toggled on.

Manage Clean Energy Charging and More on Your iPhone

With the above steps, you can help reduce your carbon footprint while charging your iPhone using the clean energy charging feature. If you need to manage other power and battery settings on your iPhone, you can.

For example, you might want to use low power mode on iPhone to help your phone get through a day with a single charge. Or, to make a quick adjustment to preserve battery life, reduce screen brightness on iPhone.

If you need to monitor the battery’s remaining battery on your iPhone, you can make it check the battery percentage. And if you want to squeeze more power from your battery, check out these tips for conserving battery power on iPhone.