OT - mobile phone chargers number 1 planet killer - official

Steve Terry wrote:
"tim(yet another new home)" wrote in
message ...

"Pyriform" wrote in message
...
I have this morning received a communication from my current energy
supplier, Southern Electric. After explaining that they've
fulfilled their May promise not to increase my prices again for the
rest of 2006, and are therefore now going to increase them from 1st
January 2007, they point me in the direction of their handy
energy-saving leaflet, which they have enclosed.

"Work WONDERS in a WEEKEND", it proclaims, ahead of a list of 4
energy saving priorities. In fourth place, the fridge-freezer.

Can you enlighten me how I'm supposed to use my
fridge freezer to save leccy?

Turn it down a bit?

I omitted the suggestion, which was to go out and buy a replacement A-rated
appliance, because it was not relevant to the point I was attempting to make
about mobile phone chargers and corporate stupidity.

Digby wrote:


The worst culprit I've found so far is a sky receiver that uses 15W on
standby, not the TV that's under 0.5W on standby.

A Sky box when in standby does nothing more than tune itself to the
'default' transponder, mute the audio and video outputs, and turn the
green front panel LED to red. ISTR there is hardly any difference in
consumption between 'On' and 'Standby'.

My old Sony STR-301 (aka Pace 800 ?) analogue sat box was much the
same, but only when a Sky card was inserted. It would tune itself to
Sky 1, and you could still hear the audio from that on one of its scart
connectors in standby.

Mark Carver wrote:

A Sky box when in standby does nothing more than tune itself to the
'default' transponder, mute the audio and video outputs, and turn the
green front panel LED to red. ISTR there is hardly any difference in
consumption between 'On' and 'Standby'.

I believe there was one model of Sky box which actually drew more power
in standby than when on (red LED in standby and no LED when on).

--
Andy

"JF" wrote in message
...
In message , linker3000
writes of USB ports:

Some of this energy is now tapped off on modern computers to charge mobile
devices and also act as a personal space heater - if you have ever sat
with a laptop on your lap, you can clearly feel your nads warming up (not
the ladies, obviously).

I recently saw in Guildford's PC World a USB coffee warmer on their
wallyware display. It consisted of a USB lead and a pad which, presumably,
held some sort of element.

I was given one of those last Christmas. It gets hot, but, since almost all
coffee mugs have a rim on the base to stop heat from being conducted down to
the table, the same rim stops heat from the gadget from passing up to the
coffee.

--
Max Demian

On Fri, 17 Nov 2006 02:03:25 GMT, "Steve Terry"
wrote:

You could 'borrow' electricity from the neighbours if this comes about
http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20061115-8229.html

The trouble with Tesla is that he's not dead enough.

Little to do with dodgy dead Serbs.
The idea is the run a resonator on a standard frequency of around 6MHz
in each house, with chargeable products like laptops, mobile phones, etc,
having a built in matching frequency resonator detecting,
and rectifying down to DC to charge up.

Presumably it would have to be switched on all the time to be of more
practical use than something you have to remember, like plugging into
a conventional charger. I wonder how efficient that would make it?

Rod.

On Thu, 16 Nov 2006 23:26:47 -0000, "tim\(yet another new home\)"
wrote:

New phone chargers use a different technology that doesn't draw
a curent when the phone is not plugged into it.

Amazing. Please tell us how this electronics that isn't drawing any
current can detect when you plug a phone into it so that it can turn
the current on.

How does a 13 amp socket detect that you have plugged
in a lamp so that it can turn the current on?

A 13 Amp socket doesn't need to turn itself off, because it has direct
mains voltage across its terminals, because that's what it supplies.
No switching, no isolating, no voltage transformation, and therefore
no electronic circuitry is needed.

If you have a new 'smaller' charge, test it without a phone.
Touch it after an hour, is it warm?

If it's not noticeably warm to the touch, that need only mean that
it's very eficient, not that it draws no current at all.

The old stye charger included a transformer.

This has two separate circuits, the one plugged into the wall
remains connected even when the second one is broken.

The new charges doesn't include a transformer (which is why
they are smaller) which, presumably have one circuit which
is broken wheh the phone is removed.

I'm sure it can't be legal to put mains directly on a low voltage
cable, so there must be isolation somewhere. And since most phone
charger connectors are too small to include any kind of switch, it can
only be the low voltage circuit, not the mains circuit, that is broken
by removing it.

Rod.

On Thu, 16 Nov 2006 19:49:11 -0000, "djc"
wrote:

I have this morning received a communication from my current energy
supplier, Southern Electric. After explaining that they've fulfilled
their May promise not to increase my prices again for the rest of
2006, and are therefore now going to increase them from 1st January
2007, they point me in the direction of their handy energy-saving
leaflet, which they have enclosed.

"Work WONDERS in a WEEKEND", it proclaims, ahead of a list of 4
energy saving priorities. In fourth place, the fridge-freezer. In
third place, the standby buttons. At number 2, the boiler
thermostat (not the room thermostat, as those of us less expert in
the field might have predicted). But in pole position, the lethal,
energy guzzling mobile phone charger. I quote:

"1 Unplug your mobile phone charger

These little black boxes suck 100kWhrs a day from your socket, even
when your phone is fully charged!"

I always charge my phone from the USB socket on my computer.

I didn't know you could get electricity via email. That's brilliant.
That should cut the electricity bill!


Who said anything about email?

He is a bit confused, but obviously thought it was funny.

I doubt if he was the former but he was correct about the latter.

Lee.
--
lee at w2designs dot co dot uk

If I have one flaw, it's that I'm a perfectoinist.

On Fri, 17 Nov 2006 01:57:54 +0000, Digby wrote:


Well the later chargers obviously don't have zero current when not
charging, but it is reasonable low.

Fair enough. There's usually a rational explanation.

As I just happen to have an old and new charger handy I thought I'd
measure their current.

Old charger On charge 4.3W No phone connected 1.38W
New charger On charge 3.2W No phone connected 0.11W

If those figures are accurate, then it's a worthwhile improvement, and
without having to believe in magic.

Rod.

On Fri, 17 Nov 2006 02:05:33 GMT, "Steve Terry"
wrote:

Can you enlighten me how I'm supposed to use my
fridge freezer to save leccy?

Turn it down a bit?

Placing the fridge so there is a clear airflow, ideally of cool air,
over the condenser tubes at the back should help it a bit, though I
couldn't guess how much you'd need to do to achieve a useful
improvement. It might be enough just to clear any junk that is leaning
against it or move it an inch or two further from the wall. Some
objective measurements would be interesting if anybody has the time
and patience to do them.

Rod.

In message . com, Mark
Carver writes

Digby wrote:


The worst culprit I've found so far is a sky receiver that uses 15W on
standby, not the TV that's under 0.5W on standby.

A Sky box when in standby does nothing more than tune itself to the
'default' transponder, mute the audio and video outputs, and turn the
green front panel LED to red. ISTR there is hardly any difference in
consumption between 'On' and 'Standby'.

I think they also dump firmware updates somewhere such as shuffling EPG
numbers around. Such is the advantage of using a restricted licence
encryption system. AFAIA no Freeview box or integrated circuitry
performs that useful function.

--
James Follett. Novelist. (G1LXP) http://www.jamesfollett.dswilliams.co.uk
"People whose default emotional state is anger gravitate towards the politics
of blame and hatred."