Guide · 2026-11-11

Does an 80 PLUS Gold upgrade pay for itself?

Sometimes, and only after you type the price gap. WattWise does not invent a shelf price, and it does not name a best power supply. Payback is the difference you enter, divided by the yearly energy the higher tier saves. If the higher tier does not save energy at your load, there is no payback.

Floors, not one unit's curve

The payback calculator uses certification floors from the CLEAResult 80 PLUS 115 V internal requirements, at the load points that program publishes. Those floors are not the efficiency curve of a particular unit. A Gold badge, in the table WattWise stores from that page, is 87% at 20% load, 90% at 50%, and 87% at 100%. A real supply can beat its floor. The badge does not prove that it does. The full table, including White through Titanium, is on the methodology page.

Between two published points the tool draws a straight line. Below the lowest published point it holds the nearest published efficiency instead of inventing a lower-load curve. 80 PLUS Ruby is in the current program and is not modeled.

The price gap is yours

Yearly wall energy is load divided by that floor efficiency, times hours per year, divided by 1,000. A year in the tool is 365 days. Savings are the difference in annual cost at the rate you enter. A small gaming load and a large price gap can take many years to come back, even when Gold is a better floor than Bronze. That is a reason to run your numbers, not a reason to skip the higher tier or to crown one. Open the payback calculator and type the gap between the two units you are actually comparing.