Greener Phones - Worth it?

ragingbass

I'm considering buying a new cordless house telephone and noticed that there's a number of products advertised as Greener, or ECO, phones now and they claim to reduce power usage, carbon footprint etc.

Has anyone on here had any experience with these types of phones, and more importantly can anyone verify that this is something worth buying? i.e. does it really reduce power usage? And if so, how much roughly?

I'm all for being greener, but I'm also a bit of a sceptic sometimes and this is one of the times when I'm wondering whether slapping a 'green' tag on something because over 10 years it uses 1p less electricity is just a marketing ploy to shift units?!

ixwood

Never heard of them. The greenest option would be a normal plug in phone requiring no electricity (or battery).

Also good for emergencies/power cuts.

greenbee

They're greener not green... if you do feel the need to buy a new one, then check out the manufacturer on the greenpeace guide to greener electronics, and work out the energy consumption from the numbers the manufacturer suppliers. Think about the whole product e.g. the packaging as well as the energy consumption.

To make it greener yourself, switch off the power supply to the charging cradle when you aren't using it.

ragingbass

Thanks for the feedback guys, they make a lot of sense. I'm currently using a corded phone, so I guess I will be increasing my carbon footprint if I go cordless even if I get one of these so called greener phones. I think I'll have more of a think about it I think and review it again after christmas. I want to be as green as I can be, where possible, but I need to weigh up living as well. With 2 young kids running around the house the cordless option would be very handy at times

thescouselander

ixwood wrote: »

Never heard of them. The greenest option would be a normal plug in phone requiring no electricity (or battery).

Also good for emergencies/power cuts.

Actually, even normal phones use electricity (when in use at least), it comes down the phone line.

Ben84

I looked up a few of these greener phones and found claims they use around half the electric, but no claims in kWh or £'s, so I'm finding it hard to turn this claim in to anything solid or useful.

However, to make these claims they should have actual data on how much energy the phone uses, so why not contact the manufacturer of any model you're interested in buying to ask them how much energy it uses. They should provide details to support the claim.