Charging tablet in car, does it increase fuel consumption?

nelliedeen

The cigarette socket in my car is always live even with the ignition off as I discovered when I left my tablet plugged in one night when my car was left in my garage.

I use the tablet to play mp3s in my car

The car still started the next morning.

Will the amount of charge the tablet took be noticeable in the fuel consumption.

If not I could charge all my tablets and phones overnight connected to my car instead of connected to chargers in my house.

fatbelly

The effect would be miniscule. Probably offset by the next time you coast slowly to a red light

ontheroad1970

Could be a good way of draining your car battery.

user1977

fatbelly said:

The effect would be miniscule.

And for the avoidance of doubt, so is the consumption if you plug them in at home.

Nobbie1967

It’ll cost more to charge in the car as you’re using heavily taxed fuel to generate the electricity rather than lightly taxed fuel at efficient power stations. It’s pennies either way, so whatever is more convenient really.

Herzlos

Nobbie1967 said:

It’ll cost more to charge in the car as you’re using heavily taxed fuel to generate the electricity rather than lightly taxed fuel at efficient power stations. It’s pennies either way, so whatever is more convenient really.

Hugely inefficiently burning hugely expensive fuel at that.

The car will need to run the alternator to provide the power for the tablet charge, or to recharge the battery if you left it on, but we're talking about something like 10w whilst an average car will be producing somewhere about 75kw (100bhp), so it's negligable.
If you left it plugged in long enough you'd flatten the battery, but I otherwise wouldn't worry about it.

Aretnap

I got one of those thingies that measures the power use/cost of electrical devices, and the power used by my phone charger was basically too small for it to measure. Your talking less than a penny to charge a typical mobile phone, even at current electricity prices. Charging it in the car will likely be a bit more expensive, but still negligible.

If you're looking to save money on your energy bill (a) turn the heating down/off (b) wash your clothes and dishes at a lower temperature (c) dry them in the line/rack instead of the tumble drier and (d) use the microwave instead of the oven where you can. That's about all you can do  Anything that doesn't generate significant amounts of heat is basically a rounding error in your bill.

Bigwheels1111

I have 2 dash cams, a sat nav, fridge freezer, 2 phones, 2 iPads and 2 power banks charging while I drive.
That might not help my fuel economy.
Driving at 65 mph does.
On a 300 miles round trip at 70 mph I got 45 mpg.
At 65 mph I got 54 mpg, a 20% increase in economy.

HillStreetBlues

Bigwheels1111 said:

I have 2 dash cams, a sat nav, fridge freezer, 2 phones, 2 iPads and 2 power banks charging while I drive.
That might not help my fuel economy.
Driving at 65 mph does.
On a 300 miles round trip at 70 mph I got 45 mpg.
At 65 mph I got 54 mpg, a 20% increase in economy.

And about 20 minute longer journey,  So savings are money v time.

Bigwheels1111

HillStreetBlues said:

Bigwheels1111 said:

I have 2 dash cams, a sat nav, fridge freezer, 2 phones, 2 iPads and 2 power banks charging while I drive.
That might not help my fuel economy.
Driving at 65 mph does.
On a 300 miles round trip at 70 mph I got 45 mpg.
At 65 mph I got 54 mpg, a 20% increase in economy.

And about 20 minute longer journey,  So savings are money v time.

I have to admit, Ive gone from Sidcup to Blackpool 8 times last year all at 5am an found not much of a time difference.

Less hold up etc. M6 toll is great, me and 2 other cars.

caprikid1

The biggest cost of leaving your tablet in your car overnight will be the smashed window when someone steals it !