Electricity Report: Cell Phone Chargers
Posted April 3rd, 2009 by Brett | Filed under: Saving Money |
6 comments
Motorola KRZR
There is always talk about “Phantom Power” and how even though there isn’t a phone or computer or mp3 player plugged into a charger, it still draws power. I wanted to test this information to see how much it actually costs to charge my phone.
I am using my Kill a Watt to see how much electricity it draws. For more info, check this post.
I have tested two different cell phones: a baseline Nokia phone and a Motorola KRZR. I took readings while the phone is charging, after the phone is completely charged and still plugged in, and without the phone plugged in.
While the phones were charging, each pulled 5 watts of power. Even if the phone was constantly charging for an entire month, it would only cost me about 30 cents. I then took readings after the phone was fully charged, and without the phone plugged in, and both drew 0 or 1 watt of power. Even though there is a trickle of power constantly running through the charger, it amounts to a penny or two throughout the course of a month.
If you are concerned about using the least amount of power possible, remove the charger from the outlet when it is done, but if you are looking for a way to save some money this isn’t going to result in any big gains. One less thing to worry about!
6 Responses to “Electricity Report: Cell Phone Chargers”
Even Tough it is a small unit but having so many people save that electricity can be always useful .
Nice experiment by the way .
April 4th, 2009 at 7:11 amgood little experiment but that 1 watt a month accumulated across 300 million Americans per month is 300 million watts. That accumulated data leads to a whole lot of c02 excess in the atmosphere for no reason. Money wise, yeah no big deal.
April 4th, 2009 at 8:33 pmIt may not save you much money, but if everyone does it, the resulting energy saved will be immeasurable. I think that’s also important as well.
April 4th, 2009 at 10:47 pmThat’s true. I was just thinking of the money saving, but overall saving of electricity is good for everyone
That’s very interesting! Where might one find one of these devices, we have an electric fence that I’m dying to know how much it’s costing to run it.
April 5th, 2009 at 8:54 amYou can buy one at Amazon.com but remember that it only can tell you information on devices that you plug into the wall.