Mobile phone chargers left plugged in?

moonrakerz

frivolous_fay wrote: »

Not really... if I walk across the room and unplug my charger, it saves a) my electricity bill and b) burns up a few calories, ultimately making me slightly less fat, less heavy, and thereby less of a fuel burden whenever I choose to travel via a method of transport that uses fossil fuels. The rest of the time, it will reduce wear and tear on my bicycle, reducing the need to consume raw material to replace the parts I won't wear out as fast. I won't be so heavy on the road and the council will need to repair less frequently (they're very conscious of this... and they rarely do it anyway :rolleyes:)

Except that you will eat another couple of Chocolate digestives to make up for the calories you burnt. The wheat will have been shipped in from Canada, the cocoa from Nigeria, the sugar from the West Indies, the Cadbury's factory will be using gas.... etc, etc,

Sue-UU

moonrakerz wrote: »

Except that you will eat another couple of Chocolate digestives to make up for the calories you burnt.

moonrakerz wrote: »

....when the advocates of this have their C/H set to high, use tungsten filament lights and drive their Range Rover to the recycling centre to dispose of two empty Chardonnay bottles !

Are you a peeping Tom, moonrakerz???? Just asking as you seem to know an awful lot about what others do! :rolleyes:;)

Sue

Mike_Phillips_2

OK - I have read - with interest - all the input about whether we should leave things (like the mobile phone charger) switched on all the time - or not. I guess the answer is to switch them off when not in use, though how much we save in terms of Cash and Saving the Planet seem to be neglible.
My question is - does the same apply to Time Switches? If I put my appliances (like phone charger, TV stand-by, etc) on time switches, how does the saving I make compare with the required power to drive the time switch? Is it worth it?
Mike Phillips Leeds

Sue-UU

Hi Mike and welcome to the Forum.

Would anyone apart from experts know the answer to your questions for sure? I would imagine that if you needed to buy the time switch in the first place that it wouldn't really be worth it, financially at least. Surely it would be better to put it on as and when. I hope someone else might be able to answer your question a little more fully for you though.

Sue

Dustykitten

Mike welcome and that's a good question. We do have one of the measuremen plugs and some timers which we use I'll do a test later to see if I can get a measurement although I am not sure how accurate it measures.

Cardew

Mike_Phillips wrote: »

OK - I have read - with interest - all the input about whether we should leave things (like the mobile phone charger) switched on all the time - or not. I guess the answer is to switch them off when not in use, though how much we save in terms of Cash and Saving the Planet seem to be neglible.
My question is - does the same apply to Time Switches? If I put my appliances (like phone charger, TV stand-by, etc) on time switches, how does the saving I make compare with the required power to drive the time switch? Is it worth it?
Mike Phillips Leeds

I think the problem is that there are so many types of timer.(we have 3)

After your post I started to test one. It is the older Phillips model - 'mechanical' not digital - a 24 hour dial with pins inserted to operate the On and Off periods.

It doesn't even use enough to give a reading on the Amps or Watts range of the power measuring meter.

After 48 hours it has not yet used sufficient electricity to even register on the cumulative power scale*. As the smallest measurement is 0.01kWh it obviously ain't consuming much power!!

* It may be that the meter simply cannot measure currents that small. although when checking a TV for standby consumption, the cumulative power measured it at 0.6Watts - which corresponds to the TV handbook specification.

Mike_Phillips_2

FIRST - a BIG thankyou to Sue-UU, DustyKitten and now Cardew. You have all been so helpful - and so friendly!

Sue-UU - I have had a number of time-switches for many years. Whilst I agree that they all had to be purchased in the first place (thus making them ver uneconomical), now that I have them, I might as well use them.

Incidentally Sue, and entirely off-subject, what is the 'Official DFW Nerd Club'? And what is the 'Sealed Pot Challenge? I am fascinated!

Cardew - all my time-switches are of the 'mechanical' type. To hear that the power they draw is unreadable, is good news, which is what I would have expected (isn't hindsight good?).

BTW - I too am a Fantastically Fervent MoneySaving Super Fan, even though I am listed as a newbie!

Thanks once again.

Mike Phillips

amcluesent

Interesting. Seems that having class of water rather than boiling the kettle a few times a year will offset loads of phone chargers plugged in for a year.

Sue-UU

Mike_Phillips wrote: »

Sue-UU - I have had a number of time-switches for many years. Whilst I agree that they all had to be purchased in the first place (thus making them ver uneconomical), now that I have them, I might as well use them.

Incidentally Sue, and entirely off-subject, what is the 'Official DFW Nerd Club'? And what is the 'Sealed Pot Challenge? I am fascinated!

BTW - I too am a Fantastically Fervent MoneySaving Super Fan, even though I am listed as a newbie!

Hi Mike,

I see what you mean about the timers, you'd just as well use them for sure.

Now to the 'Official DFW Nerd Club'. It all started (so I have read) from a comment put on by Martin (Lewis) to answer what the definition of DFW (Debt-Free Wannabe) was and he put this:- <<"DFW A place of mutual support for those struggling to get out of debt plus help from other debt nerds">> So, it all started from there and has become something to be somewhat proud of. If you'd like to join then go to this thread http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/...FW+nerd+thread and add your wish to be included on the last page, "southernscouser" will then give you a number which you can add on your signature like me.

The 'Sealed Pot Challenge': That was started by "mumzyof2" last year and is, for all those interested, a chance to get yourself a jar/tin/container and seal it to prevent you from delving into it, then putting loose change (or what you wish) in and not opening it until November/December or thereabouts so we all have savings for Christmas. Then start over again after Christmas for a holiday or whatever you wish (next Christmas perhaps). So go to http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=605703, then to the last page and, if you wish, simply ask if you can be a member of that also and you'll be given a number. It all helps us to save and get our finances straight - I never thought I'd become so "I HAVE to save every penny possible" minded, but it's great that it's happened.

Re you being a "Newbie": You'll soon be a "Money Saving Convert" and 1 star when you get to around 30 posts, then you get the 2 stars and "Money Saving Stalwart" when you reach 200 posts and so forth. So, the more you help folk (if you can) then the higher you go. This site is VERY addictive - so be warned!:D

Good luck Mike!

Sue

Altarf

davetrousers wrote: »

Could someone out some figures (ie cost) to how much money is wasted by phone chargers being left switched on? Is it pence or pounds?

It depends on the type of charger.

There are two types, the older wired transformer chargers and the newer electronic switched-mode power supply. The easy way to tell the difference, without taking them apart, is the wired transformers are quite heavy and the switched-mode power supply's are very light. Most modern phones, apart from the real cheapies, come with a switched-mode power supply.

Wired transformer phone chargers use a small amount of energy when switched on, but not charging, which is why they are warm to the touch, typically around 1 watt so would cost you about 60p per year per charger.

Switched-mode power supplies use a tiny fraction of the amount of electricity used by a wired transformer when switched on, but not charging. If you tried to measure the amount of electricity being consumed using one of the power meters sold by Mapin (and others) then it would just show zero, as the amount used is too small to measure.

So the answer is, if you have a wired transformer phone charger, then you can save yourself 60p a year by switching it off, if you have a switched-mode power supply then you will save at most 1p by turning it off.