Power Down the Drain

How much power gets wasted by chargers plugged in for devices not in use, or

those not even connected to the charger?

First, some examples from home and office. Mobile phone. The many different

digital cameras, MP3 players, et al. Battery rechargers. Wireless routers.

Cordless phones. Laptops. Let's ignore for now the millions of consumer

electronics devices like TVs that are drawing tens of watts on standby. Most

conventional mobile phone chargers (assuming those high-efficiency, SMPS-based

model, not the heavy transformer-based units which some mobile phones, and most

cordless phones, still use) draws between half and one watt when not in use. (If

it's warm to the touch, it's drawing more).

There are 300 million mobile phones in India, and most people leave their

chargers connected even when their phones are not connected or getting charged.

And most also overcharge-long after the phone is fully charged, the phone stays

connected to the charger, drawing several watts of power (if you're phone is

warm to the touch, it's drawing tens of watts).

Let's pretend that an optimistic one-third of people conscientiously switch

off their chargers when they are done with them. That leaves 200 million

chargers drawing up to a watt each. Or more. That's 200 megawatts. The output of

a small power plant.

Prasanto K Roy, president and chief editor, ICT Publications, CyberMedia pkr@cybermedia.co.in

The good news is that all the leading mobile manufacturers got together in

November and launched a common energy-star rating system for mobile phone

chargers. Five-star is the best rating, one-star the worst. This is supported by

Nokia, Motorola, Sony Ericsson, LG and Samsung.

The bad news is: all adapters, even the inefficient one-star or zero-star

ones, will be sold. Customers will be able to choose “the adapter that suits

them, based on the star rating”. And why? Obviously, because the higher star

ratings will come at a cost: the more the stars, the more the cost.

Now, that might sound like a harebrained idea. For, the customer doesn't

care. He's not bothered 0.03 watt versus 0.5 watt: the difference won't even

show up on his electricity meter. He's not likely to pay several hundred rupees

more to save Rs 20 a year. And how will the Nokias et all do it for new

phones-will they sell packages with different star options? No, they'll probably

ship the expensive five-star chargers with the expensive phones, leaving the

bulk of the population with cheaper low-star chargers...

However, this is an important first step.

I expect that in 2009, vendors will begin to standardize on a three-star or

better charger for OEM shipments for most of their phones. Replacement units

will also converge around three- or four-star chargers.

All vendors will also build in circuits to cut off charging completely when

the battery is charged (many phones have this already) and also indicate

“battery full” through visual or audio alarms.



The real impact will however happen when manufacturers in other sectors take a
cue from the mobile phone vendors (many OEM suppliers of chargers and adapters

are the same ones who sell to mobile vendors).

They will be helped along by the fact that nearly a billion adapters will be

made for mobile phones in 2009 following the energy star rating, driving volumes

up and costs down.

If this idea spreads in 2009 to other sectors, that will make a huge impact

on the idle energy draw of our planet, and, more importantly, a little bit on

own electricity bills.