Phone Chargers...

griffins_2

Just heard on the news that keeping mobile phone chargers plugged into the mains with no phone attached to it uses electricity and if the whole country unpluged their chargers when not in use it would save a mammoth £60 million in electricity annually. :shocked:

Nearly everyone i know doesnt unplug their mobile chargers, me included, when not in use.

I'm no electrician but it'd be interesting to see how much they actually consume and cost for each individual charger, and also whether chargers can be designed with a switch or something near the connection to stop the current/electricity flow somehow because mine are plugged into sockets that would be awkward to access all the time.

Altarf

The source used by the Energy Saving Trust quotes 1W per hour, so left on 24/365 would use 8.76 kWh which is about 66p per year.

Not worth the bother.

deanos

Altarf wrote:

The source used by the Energy Saving Trust quotes 1W per hour, so left on 24/365 would use 8.76 kWh which is about 66p per year.

Not worth the bother.

But the point is if everyone did it the saving to the enviroment would be huge when all things that are left on standby are combined.

So it is worth the bother.

pollys

We turn ours off, surely it is worth the bother. We are the most wasteful country in Europe when it comes to energy and if everyone decided it's "not worth the bother" this Planet would be in an even worse situation then it is now.

pollys

cross posted deanos

Gorgeous_George

I believe leaving phone chargers on can be a fire risk.

I'm more interested in TVs. Apparently, switching these off completely rather than leaving them on standby cn save you £40 per year. I've worked out that if I do this with all my TVs, the electric company will owe me money!



GG

Cardew

Gorgeous_George wrote:

I believe leaving phone chargers on can be a fire risk.

I'm more interested in TVs. Apparently, switching these off completely rather than leaving them on standby cn save you £40 per year. I've worked out that if I do this with all my TVs, the electric company will owe me money!



GG

I think you misheard that(if you are talking about the BBC report tonight). The average total for all standby items in a house is £40 per year.

Modern TV's(last 10 years or so) on standby consume very little. The total cost for the 3 in my house 32" & 28" CRTs and 32" LCD is less than £2 a year if left on 24/7. Some may be more than this, some less.

I see little point in having timers on microwaves, ovens, washing machines, dishwashers, DVD/VCR/Sky+ etc and switching them off so they don't work - they are designed to be left on.

To pre-empt the usual self righteous cries - switch them off if you wish, but get the savings into perspective.

If people are really are into big time saving, perhaps they should get rid of their computer and internet, or spend less time on forums like this;)

deanos

Cardew you keep on about money when this crops up but it is not just about money, the other point they were making was the enviromental cost and a small simple step made by many colectavily (sp) can make a huge difference.

Fred_Bear_2

When I went on holiday this summer I read the meter and read it again when I returned. I was amazed to discover that I had used 5.5kWh per day! The biggest users were the fridge & freezer, but these accounted for just 2.5kWh. To find out where the other 3kWh electricity was going I bought a plug-in consumption meter (a Brennenstuhl PM230). This is useful but does not work correctly below 5W, and so is unable to measure the standby current of most appliances. Does anyone know the best way to measure small standby currents?
Fred

Cardew

deanos wrote:

Cardew you keep on about money when this crops up but it is not just about money, the other point they were making was the enviromental cost and a small simple step made by many colectavily (sp) can make a huge difference.

This is a money saving website and the forum is entitled Green and Ethical money saving. There are dozens of websites/forums where environmental issues can be discussed.

Of course there are other considerations besides the financial aspects and, if you look at previous posts of mine, I have been at pains to point out that out.

Without attempting to be facetious if everyone gave up their computer and internet and/or thousands of posts on this, and other forums, that would also save a huge amount of energy and hence affect the environment.

So does having a PC and the internet make you(and I) less environmentally responsible that someone who doesn’t have a PC?

IMO it is perfectly valid to quantify the power requirements, and hence cost, of different appliances and let people make up their own mind on what savings they wish to make.

Personally I am not prepared to render my Sky+ box and Microwave unusable for the relatively small amount of energy they use.

I wonder if you noticed that Germany whilst best in Europe at saving unnecessary power use(Britain is worst) the Germans actually use more electricity per head than UK.

tr3mor

Fred_Bear wrote:

When I went on holiday this summer I read the meter and read it again when I returned. I was amazed to discover that I had used 5.5kWh per day! The biggest users were the fridge & freezer, but these accounted for just 2.5kWh. To find out where the other 3kWh electricity was going I bought a plug-in consumption meter (a Brennenstuhl PM230). This is useful but does not work correctly below 5W, and so is unable to measure the standby current of most appliances. Does anyone know the best way to measure small standby currents?
Fred

You could plug all the related items you usually leave on standby into an extension lead then into the meter. It might be able to pick it up better.