Cell Phone Industry Looks to Chargers for Reputation Repair
by Jaymi Heimbuch, San Francisco, California on 11.19.08
Photo via godwin d
It’s quickly becoming common knowledge that the efficiency of a charger plays a big role in the energy consumption of a device. Energy Star makes this very clear, and so does Motorola's history in making efficient chargers for cell phones.
According to Reuters, "The [cell phone] industry has become the world's top consumer electronics business by volume." That means the energy wasted by crummy chargers is significant. And the industry's manufacturers need to step up and fix this issue.
The five biggest cell phone makers are finally taking notice that this might just make a difference on cell phone sales during the recent slump. So, they’ve come up with a common energy rating system, making it easier for customers to comparison shop when it comes to efficiency and minimizing energy costs.
The new system is pretty basic. It works with five stars, five being the most efficient. The companies leaping on to this rating method include Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and LG.
If left plugged into the socket, chargers continue to use electricity even if the phone is disconnected. Nokia said around two-thirds of the electricity used by mobile phones is wasted this way. "If the more than three billion people owning mobile devices today switched to a four- or five-star charger, this could save the same amount of energy each year as produced by two medium sized power plants," Nokia said in a statement.While the rating system likely won’t mean a heck of a lot at first for consumers – touch screen versus keypad is a bigger deal to most shoppers right now – it certainly will make a difference as people penny pinch more and more on their electric bills. It’s a short matter of time before charger efficiency is as important to consumers as battery life for talk time or camera quality.
Via Reuters
More on Cell Phones:
Motorola 100% EnergyStar Certified
Cell Phone Sales Slump Is Good Green News
7 Ways to Make Your Cell Phone Battery Last Longer
Treehugger Homework: Unplug Your Cellphone Charger
China's Coal Fires Burn 20 Million Tons of Coal Per Year
|
From the Forums: Most Offensive Non-Green Junk Mail Ever?
|
I have a suggestion... how about USING THE SAME PLUG FIRST???
Why is that so hard?
@nick
this was decieded on already, microusb is be the standard they adopted.
I have a cell phone and commute by automobile. I leave the phone turned off and plugged into my car charger on the way to work, 25 minutes and its fully charged when I get there. On the way home, I leave it on and plug it in again. I can still receive calls and it's fully charged when I get home.
If you drive and can, a car charger makes more sense than paying extra on your home electric bill.
Microusb might be the standard but I don't see Apple changing their standard charger... the real solution is that phones don't come with chargers included they should be bought separately - whilst they're 'free' they're perceived as disposable.
*sigh*
Yes, Vampire power can matter. *IF* you're off-grid and when you turn everything off, you want to be sure that *everything* is off. The extra 12 watts of continuous use will eventually drain your batteries.
But that 12 watts is not significant unless you already have done everything humanly possible to reduce your electricity usage to under a kilowatt per *day*. If your refrigerator does not have extra insulation glued on and does not sit outside your house, it simply doesn't matter. That 0.028 kwh per day is instantly overwhelmed by what your fridge uses. Nevermind your TV, computer, lights, toaster, and alarm clock. And god forbid you use air conditioning or electric heat...
Coincidentally, a single regular cell phone charger uses about 1 watt, or 0.0024 kwh per day. While it's simple and cheap to unplug it, a vastly better method of reducing your consumption is to fix the bigger things.
Ernie,
You don't read too good, huh? Here, let me help you, I'll just paste the important bit so you don't have to stretch your intellect by re-reading the entire post:
"If the more than three billion people owning mobile devices today switched to a four- or five-star charger, this could save the same amount of energy each year as produced by two medium sized power plants,"
@ Mark
Where do you think the power for your car charger comes from? It's not free.
Re: car charger:
I suspect you will find that the tiny current of the phone charger increases the load on the alternator and burns a little more gasoline so instead of a tiny increase in your home electricity there will be a slightly larger increase in your automotive fuel bill. Wall power is very efficient, even when it uses coal. (Yes, about 20% for thermal-electric, but probably less than 5% for a 50 amp alternator)
"Where do you think the power for your car charger comes from? It's not free."
I would think the small amount of power would be pretty negligible in a car, especially since most DC outlets are off when the car is off, and people are probably more likely to unplug the charger in the car when done (to reduce risk of theft)
The alternator is already producing power (when needed) so how much more would it work for a small amount of power?