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Unplug your chargers!

J. Crawford

J. Crawford

Feb 15, 2008
14,147
2,875
FL
#1
I heard on the news this morning that it costs $0.20 an day to leave your phone charger plugged in when its not in use.

I usually leave mine in all day everyday, but Im going to start unplugging it.

Just thought I would give you a heads up.
 
#11
Do the math - it's nowhere near that much. It's more like 2 cents a day. How many watts is the charger, and how much do you pay for electricity?

Watts * 24 hours / 1000 = Kilowatt-hours. Then multiply by your electric bill rate.
eg: 10w * 24 / 1000 = 0.24 kwh. My electric is 9c / kwh, so 2.2c / day.

This assumes the charger does not have a low-power sleep mode, but many do.
 
#13
PaleMelanesian said:
Do the math - it's nowhere near that much. It's more like 2 cents a day. How many watts is the charger, and how much do you pay for electricity?

Watts * 24 hours / 1000 = Kilowatt-hours. Then multiply by your electric bill rate.
eg: 10w * 24 / 1000 = 0.24 kwh. My electric is 9c / kwh, so 2.2c / day.

This assumes the charger does not have a low-power sleep mode, but many do.
Click to expand...

I doubt a wall wart not be used draws 10 watts either. I bet it's more like 1/10 watt. So your probably looking at 0.22 cents per day. However,
if 100 million people unplugged their chargers that would be $220,000.00 a day.:D
 
#17
when i bought my house a few years ago, i had to take a class.. our city's electric provider showed up and talked about many topics.. this was one of them.

been doing this for awhile.. if something isn't being used, it's not plugged in, not even my electric snuggie.
 
#18
NJL said:
when i bought my house a few years ago, i had to take a class.. our city's electric provider showed up and talked about many topics.. this was one of them.

been doing this for awhile.. if something isn't being used, it's not plugged in, not even my electric snuggie.
Click to expand...

Just curious, who made you take a class to buy a house?
 
#19
If you really want to save some serious money, try to do major things on off-peak hours like running your washer, dryer, dishwasher, etc. Assuming, of course, that your energy provider has designated on-peak and off-peak hours.
 
#20
The real impact of this is in millions of wall warts plugged in 24 hours a day, adding to the overall load on the power grid.

Problem is that there are too many of them for the average person to go around and unplug or turn off AC strips when they're not in use. Lots of household devices use 12V or some similar voltage, and almost all of them have wall warts to step down AC to the required DC voltage.

Another aspect of this that many don't recognize is that "instant on" appliances achieve that quick "on" by using current constantly to keep the electronics ready. That adds to the load on the power grid the same way.
 

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