Plugged in Phone Chargers...Waste of Energy? Think Again...

Inference ^ | 12/31/2006 | David MacKay

[Dallas59]

Phone chargers How much is inside a phone charger?

One of the greatest dangers to society is the phone charger. The BBC news has been warning us of this since 2005:

'The nuclear power stations will all be switched off in a few years.

How can we keep Britain's lights on? ... unplug your mobile-phone charger when it's not in use.'

Sadly, a year later, Britain hadn't got the message.

'Britain tops energy waste league'

- and how did this come about? The BBC ram the message home:

'65% of UK consumers leave chargers on'

From the way the BBC talks about these planet-destroying black objects, it's clear that they are roughly as evil as Darth Vader. But how evil, exactly? I had to find out.

How much power does a charger (left plugged-in) guzzle? OneCharger0b I got a nice power-measuring meter and plugged in a Nokia charger. The power reading was Zero Watts. 0W.

Two Chargers

I plugged in two Nokia chargers. Still Zero Watts.

Three Chargers

I plugged in a third charger (this one was for a Sony phone). Still Zero Watts.

Four Chargers

A fourth charger: this one was for a Toshiba pocket PC. Still Zero Watts!

Five Chargers

I added a fifth charger: this one was for a Dell laptop computer. Still Zero Watts!

Six Chargers

I plugged in the three phone chargers, the laptop computer's power supply, the charger for a pocket PC, and a battery-charger for 4 AA batteries. Finally, the meter registered power! One Watt.
Hmm - to measure a charger accurately, a smaller meter is required!
But already we can make some interesting deductions. My measurements indicate that my phone chargers consume less than 0.5W when left plugged in. The total power consumption of the average Brit is 5000W. (Including car driving, home heating, and so forth, not just electricity.) So obeying the BBC's advice, always unplug the phone charger, could potentially reduce British energy consumption by one hundredth of one percent (if only people would do it).

Every little helps!

Can you think of any other things we could do that would reduce consumption by more than one hundredth of one percent?

Is there any chance that this emphasis on phone chargers is like bailing the Titanic with a tea-strainer?

Don't forget, the government's target is for a 60% reduction in carbon emissions...

[Dallas59]

DOOMED!...Not

[Mobile Vulgus]

I totally, freakin' LOVE this page!!

A hilarious expose of the stupidity of government "logic" on display here.

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

The other favourite thing the warmists like to trot out is switching to compact fluorescent light bulbs. CF lights can save up to 3/4 of the electricity used for lighting -- in warm climates. In cold climates, CF bulbs save much less -- an indoors incandescent bulb is a very efficient electric heater. The econuts are trying to lull people into believing that meeting CO2 reduction targets will be painless -- simply unplug your cell phone charger, and change your light bulbs.

In Canada, residential lighting uses only 2/3 of one percent of the energy we consume. Even if we went completely dark, we would still have to reduce our energy use by 34 1/3% more, just to meet our Kyoto targets.

[Irishguy]

i am sure the gore household has unplugged them all...

[Ditter]

I have used those curly fluorescence bulbs for a long time. They last a lot longer than regular light bulbs and they don't get hot. I hate to change bulbs and this makes them attractive to me. I heard Rush ranting about them the other day.

[AnotherUnixGeek]

I have used those curly fluorescence bulbs for a long time. They last a lot longer than regular light bulbs and they don't get hot.

I recently bought a couple of them when my hallway lights burned out. They're adequate - seem to take a minute to reach full brightness, light looks similar to incandescent - maybe a little weaker than same wattage incandescent, and I apparently won't have to change them for a while.

[Ditter]

I don't notice that they are slower to light up but I do think the light is a little cooler, not that that matters. I just HATE to have a light bulbs go out on me and these are MUCH longer lasting. I think Rush's objection was that they are being forced on us in the guise of saving the planet. I have been using them since they first came out so that argument means nothing to me.

[AlexW]

CFs have some good points but also many problems.
If you live in an area of thunderstorms, it is sad when your new $5 cf bites the dust in the first week.
When I was last in west Tennessee, the premature failure
blew away any power savings.

There is also the problem of disposal.
Another point... How much energy is used in the manufacture
of a cf? It has molded plastic parts ( a lot of energy)
It has other electronic parts, as well as dangerous chemicals, such as mercury.

I think the future will be in more advanced technologies, such as LED lights.
CFs are really very old technology, as with the old fluorescent tube lights.

[Zack Attack]

Do the Brits not have the ability to buy carbon credits so they can leave them plugged in all they want?

[sgtbono2002]

I always keep a bulb in my wellhouse during the winter to keep my pipes from freezing.

[Realism]

Transformers, cable boxes, Telephones, clocks, televisions, computer equipment. Turned off but plugged in have a combined draw at my home of about 250 watts = 6 kwh per day = 42kwh per week = 2,184 kwh per year @ $.13 per kwh = $300 per year.

[IYAAYAS]

Whoever wrote this article should at least have found an Electrical Engineer and asked a few basic questions. Any device, especially something with a transformer will consume a small amount of power while plugged in. A tiny but measurable amount.

[CharlesWayneCT]

And they consume a lot more power when the other end of the units are plugged into the device they are supposed to be charging, unless that device has an electronic cut-off switch (most of the recent stuff does).

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

I use a lot of the CF light bulbs myself -- for the reasons you cite. They are particularly useful in difficult to reach places, or in fixtures that have to be dismantled to replace a bulb. I have also found them very handy in some old ceiling fixtures, which were not rated for enough Watts to provide the light I wanted with incandescent bulbs. The fact that the CF bulbs run cooler, means that you can use much brighter bulbs.

My point wasn't that people shouldn't use CF bulbs -- there are some clear advantages to them. My point was that they are being over promoted by the warmists, who want us to think that reaching CO2 emission targets will be painless. At best, more efficient lighting will only save a small fraction of the energy reductions required. In cool climates, they will save significantly less energy. There should certainly be no laws forcing people to use CF bulbs (like in Australia).

[USFRIENDINVICTORIA]

That's a good idea. You might also consider using heat tape on the pipes. When I lived in the far north, even pipes several feet underground would often freeze, if they weren't wrapped in heat tape. For exposed pipes, you can get split foam tubes to put over the pipes and heat tape.

[Ditto]

Can you think of any other things we could do that would reduce consumption by more than one hundredth of one percent?

Here's an idea. The BBC shuts down one day a week.

I don't have a clue how much electricity that would save, but it would surely result in a spike in the I.Q. of the average Brit.

[gondramB]

The truht is in the middle. Many but not all electronic devices that use external power supplies continue to use power even when the device they are designed to charge are not there.

The Stanford linear accelerator lab did a study and put together a database on which models waste power. The database appears to down right this moment but here is alink to a story that discusses it. The common term for such devices is "vampire devices."

http://www2.slac.stanford.edu/tip/2003/mar07/vampire.htm

Why? because its cheaper. To prevent this you need extra chips and electronic control. A cheap electronic device with an external power supply is pretty much guaranteed to be vampire but with an expensive device it could go either way.

Other than checking the data base or buying a watt meter for testing, the easy way to tell is to leave the charger plugged in for an hour and then touch it. If its warmer than room temperature then its using electricity.