Gavin: August 2007 Archives
Some quick back of an envelope maths about power consumption of those black power supplies. They take AC current 230V in Europe and 110V in the USA and convert it to DC current. They mainly seem to have a standby mode, even if they are not actually connected to the phone or the device they are meant to be charging. They are usually warm to the touch.
So, if you unplug your phone from the charger and leave it plugged in, then it can be drawing 10W of power or more, based on this standby power study from 2002. Taking lower end of this as a baseline it is surprising how much power is wasted. I've estimated about 2000W per day could be being wasted, say ten power supplies, which are actually in use for 2-3 hours a day and left on the rest of the time.
There are many of these in the average home, they drive bedside lights, radios, phone and battery chargers, provide power for scanners, hard disks and small speakers to name a few I own. In the UK 1kWh is the standard billing unit for domestic metering of electricity, it costs about 10 pence per kWh, so over a year it is possible to save about 750kWh or about 75 pounds, say 150 dollars. This is more than enough to pay for the cost of replacing the power strips in the first year. I'm planning on looking at the environmental impact of replacement in a later posting.
How many power supplies are left on all the time in your flat or house ?
So, if you unplug your phone from the charger and leave it plugged in, then it can be drawing 10W of power or more, based on this standby power study from 2002. Taking lower end of this as a baseline it is surprising how much power is wasted. I've estimated about 2000W per day could be being wasted, say ten power supplies, which are actually in use for 2-3 hours a day and left on the rest of the time.
There are many of these in the average home, they drive bedside lights, radios, phone and battery chargers, provide power for scanners, hard disks and small speakers to name a few I own. In the UK 1kWh is the standard billing unit for domestic metering of electricity, it costs about 10 pence per kWh, so over a year it is possible to save about 750kWh or about 75 pounds, say 150 dollars. This is more than enough to pay for the cost of replacing the power strips in the first year. I'm planning on looking at the environmental impact of replacement in a later posting.
How many power supplies are left on all the time in your flat or house ?
A quick trip to a local DIY shop produced this photo, showing the range of power strips available and how few of them have switches. See the image on flickr for notes. The photo was taken in the UK, hence the three square pin plugs.
This blog is the beginning of a micro-campaign to encourage the general public, that is you and I to use switched extension blocks (or power strips). We'll also be persuading our retailers to stop stocking the non-switched variety and encouraging manufacturers to stop making the bulk of their products with out the all important switch.
Why did I do this? Well I'm as lazy as you and I know I should unplug each of the 20 or 30 devices in my house, but I don't always do the right thing. So I looked to see what was for sale and I was surprised, hence the focused micro-campaign.
Why did I do this? Well I'm as lazy as you and I know I should unplug each of the 20 or 30 devices in my house, but I don't always do the right thing. So I looked to see what was for sale and I was surprised, hence the focused micro-campaign.
