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Forget mobile phone chargers – they are not the problem!

I participated in the recent IBM Global Eco Jam and there were some fantastic discussions there.

One of the discussions surprised me though – people were still talking about unplugging mobile phone chargers as if that was a significant problem. It is not. On the contrary, it is a dangerous distraction.

Watch the video above. Seriously, do. I’ll wait.

The mobile phone chargers I tested all consumed 0.1W or less of electricity when left plugged in and not charging a phone. That is minute.

Sure, I get that if you add up all the millions of mobile phone chargers across the country, all those millions of 0.1W adds up to a significant load. I get that. I do.

LED Light

LED spot light

However, if you change one 50W halogen bulb for a 3.6W LED alternative that is the equivalent of unplugging over 460 mobile phone chargers. And that’s just from changing one bulb. How many bulbs do you have in your house? How many houses are there across the country containing how many bulbs?

Or forget light bulbs. What about the electricity draw of other devices in your house when they are plugged in but not operating (this is called standby power!)?

Well, my microwave consumes 3.5W when plugged in and not in use (that’s 35 mobile phone chargers worth), my printer draws 5.9W when on and not actually printing (59 mobile phone chargers worth), my Nintendo Wii draws a whopping 9.5W when on and not in use (95 mobile phone chargers worth), even cradles for cordless home phones can be consuming eight times more electricity than mobile phone chargers!

Mobile phone chargers, for some reason, seem to have been picked up by people as the bad boys when it comes to standby power. That is a dangerous fallacy. Why dangerous? People who are trying to do the right thing are ensuring that they unplug their mobile phone chargers, potentially unaware that their microwave/printer/games console is consuming orders of magnitude more power than the phone charger.

Switchable power strip

Switchable power strip

Don’t get me wrong, sure you shouldn’t leave your phone charger plugged in, but it is likely that there are far larger standby draws in your home or office you should be aware of. Educate yourself. Find out which of your devices draws the most power

How do you know which devices consume the most power? Find a little plug-in electricity meter to measure the power draw of your appliances, they are quite cheap and easy to find online – check here, here and here, for example. In some cases your local utility company may even supply them.

One of the things I do is to plug multiple devices into a power strip with a switch, this way I can quickly kill their power draw by flipping a single switch.

But stop talking about unplugging mobile phone chargers – by themselves they are a minuscule draw. Unplug everything.

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June 29th GreenMonk Energy and Sustainability show

Here is the chatstream from yesterday’s Energy & Sustainability show (above) – there were a couple of technical hitches which I have now sorted out and which shouldn’t present problems next week:

03:31 Tom Raftery: Do we have audio & video
03:32 cgarvey: yup, both working
03:34 SukiFuller: I’m gonna be listening but not able to type
03:35 Tom Raftery: http://www.upi.com/Energy_Resources/2009/06/15/Global-warming-causing-mass-migration/UPI-51151245080561
03:37 Tom Raftery: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=the-peril-below-the-ice
03:39 Tom Raftery: http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE55M0XT20090623
03:40 Tom Raftery: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=car-exhaust-premature-birth
03:43 MikeTheBee: In more ways than one!
03:44 Tom Raftery: http://www.energyefficiencynews.com/policy/i/2193/
03:45 Doc_Manhattan: Hello Tom great show so far
03:46 Tom Raftery: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/29/business/energy-environment/29biofuel.html?_r=2
03:47 Tom Raftery: http://www.algasolrenewables.com/en/home
03:49 Doc_Manhattan: too cool on the algae
03:49 Tom Raftery: http://www.technologyreview.com/blog/energy/23753/
03:49 cgarvey: More good news .. http://url.ie/1xmu .. all the big mobile phone companies have signed up for a common charger standard to start to appear from 2010.
03:51 Tom Raftery: http://www.ecofriend.org/entry/eco-cars-us-based-oil-company-debuts-100-electric-car-ev-sharing-program
03:52 Tom Raftery: http://www.autobloggreen.com/2009/06/27/mulally-fords-path-to-profitability-based-on-electrification
03:53 cgarvey: There is an issue with Firefox and comments (I’ll email you separately)
03:54 Tom Raftery: http://www.reuters.com/article/rbssConsumerGoodsAndRetailNews/idUST9767820090623
03:54 MikeTheBee: Comments okay on Mac but not for me *again” on FF win
03:55 Tom Raftery: http://www.pcworld.com/article/167503/cisco_promotes_telecommuting.html
03:56 Doc_Manhattan: our group works together as a worldwide team on www.reactiongrid.com using a VW to meet so we’re participating!
03:56 MikeTheBee: @cgarvey Me too pls, I thought I had it sussed with cookies previously
03:57 Tom Raftery: http://www.reuters.com/article/technologyNews/idUSTRE55S1XZ20090629
03:58 MikeTheBee: Ah good, mini USB is at least a standard of sorts
03:58 Tom Raftery: http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE55N3ZV20090624
03:59 MikeTheBee: Scotland have no money of their own
04:01 cgarvey: mailing you now on both
04:01 MikeTheBee: @cgarvey Thx
04:01 SukiFuller: I have no technical issues. 🙂 Some great links today, awesome show Tom!
04:02 cgarvey: Thanks again Tom
04:02 MikeTheBee: Ell done again . cheers all.
04:02 Tom Raftery: Thanks everyone for a great show – apols for tech issues
04:14 cgarvey: Just a small correction: the new mobile charger standard is Micro USB, not Mini USB. Pic comparing them: http://url.ie/1xn9 .. WikiPedia article: http://url.ie/1xna Info