This USB wall charger secretly logs keystrokes from Microsoft wireless keyboards nearby

venturebeat.com ^ | January 12, 2015 | Emil Protalinski

[norwaypinesavage]

"GFI outlets draw upwards of 50w/day"

I think as little perspective on charger energy consumption is in order. Watts do not define energy consumption, the units are watt-hours. I will assume the GFCI outlets you described consume 50 watt-hours per day, about 2 watts continuously. Most people spend about a dime for each 1000 watt-hours (one kilowatt-hour). So 50 watt-hours per day would be about 30 cents per month. Most homes have several GFCI units (each unit protects several outlets), so that works out to 1 to 2 bucks a month on your electric bill.

That's not trivial, but hardly the main killer in your bill. The biggest killer is likely an air conditioner, followed closely by a refrigerator. Since you only use the air conditioner in the summer, it's likely your refrigerator that's the worst offender on an annual basis. This is particularly true if you have an old refrigerator running in the garage or basement. An electric water heater would rank up there too, especially if it's not on a separate meter.

The newer "switching" chargers use even less power than the GFCI, so they may only run a buck a month or less if left plugged in (a buck, or less per month). The older heavy black transformer type chargers are somewhat worse than the GFCI. If you have several of those, unplugging them when not in use might noticeably change your electric bill.