On R4 a few minutes ago:-
Expert: And remember not to leave things like phones plugged in on charge when they've finished charging.
Mair: Is it ok to just unplug the phone while leaving the charger switched on?
Expert: [pause] Yes, that's OK.
That made me growl too. Where do they get these people from?
Likely a spokesperson reading from a prepared script. Which is why Mair asked the question. ;-)
She was a "green" expert. What more needs to be said?
I was listening in the car. It was a really *REALLY* bad interview, using someone as an expert who didn't have a clue. Why on earth did the BBC think a person who runs a switching website (Ann Robinson?) would know the first thing about energy saving?
It is ok, albeit ineffective at saving energy. Unplugging switched mode wallwarts is generally pointless anyway. Green bull as usual.
NT
If you think about it disconnecting the device will make most modern PSUs shut down. Leaving them plugged in will stop them shutting down. It may save a small amount of energy.
are you the expert they interviewed?
NT
Dennis is quite right. Energy will be saved. Plus a reduced fire hazard.
If you take into account all the stuff round the place, if it was all left energised, it would be significant.
Its down to PSU chip design, they use microwatts when there is no load and milliwatts when there is. The power saving is very small from that but the charger in the device will also use a bit of energy too. The power saving is small.
No it wouldn't.
It's not small it's negative. The electrical energy saved is dwarfed by the energy expended in going over there & switching it off. So you get to spend a little time for negative outcome. Typical greens.
Even for 50Hz transformer type wallwarts I calculated one saved something like 45p an hour from going round turning them off. IRL of course you end up with flat appliances now & then, the result of which dwarfs any green savings.
And this kind of silliness is meant to save the planet!
NT
If they're adding up to 4.5kW I tend to think they're electric fires, not wallwarts.
You have read the posts and worked out that its not about switching it off?
Typical drivel. You turn the charger off when you disconnect the phone. FFS. Are you brain dead?
According to some, you're expected to think beyond your personal effort, to the wider benefits to society. That said, if you think of flicking a switch or pulling a plug in terms of 'effort expended' . . .
Flip - 3 kW/hr?!
Planet's going nowhere ;-)
Again, it's not what it means to you, although I do appreciate that might be all you see. Sometimes, in the UK, you have to multiply any gains by 26 million to see how much less power needs to be generated. Plus any gains in health!
Agreed although I think you are a bit on the optimistic side about how gracefully they shut down completely when not under load. Most stuff these days on standby is well under 500mW but a few things are rogue.
What sort of wallwart burns 45p/hour = 3kW? An electric arc welding one?
A typical prehistoric cheap transformer wallwart was about 5W when idle so 120Wh/day or 1kWhr every 8 days = 45kWh/year @ 15p /kWhr.
15 X 45 = £3.75/year ~ 1p/day.Modern switched mode when idle are one to three orders of magnitude less. I did have a couple of ancient modem PSUs plugged in behind my desk until I got an Owl and went looking for unexpected base load.
The worst offender was the TV running its TDTV decoder even in standby and doing it very inefficiently (default settings when TDTV was new)!
Every little helps (as Tesco are fond of saying).
But TBH unplugging these modern chargers is no longer essential provided you unplug the device from the charging port.
You guys are very funny. When you take so many seconds to turn off some warts, they're then off for maybe 12 hours or more. One hour of time spent turning off warts saves around 45p in electrickery.
NT
RJH:
Yep, you'd have a whole society of people spending time saving 45p of electricity per hour spent. The result for society as a whole? A waste of productive time, an economic loss to the nation.
don't be stupid
and equally the time spent switching warts off. Is this not obvious to anyone capable of primary maths?
zero, unless you're going to claim that one can get fit by switching the odd wart off!
NT
and it takes how long to get up, switch it off & sit back down? Lets say 20 seconds. Say you do that twice a day = 40 seconds to save 8 hours of use , ie 0.33p. That works out at 0.5p per minute or 30p per hour of labour.
which makes turning them off wholly senseless
It does not help to have a national workforce labouring for:
30p per hour if they only have old wallwarts 3p an hour or less with modern switched mode warts. Only a political party devoid of a brain cell would suggest it would.NT
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