Green tip #8 : Unplug your mobile phone charger
Posted by DavidM in Save energy | 5 December 2006
Following on from Green tip #7 about doing a simple appliance audit around your home, I think mobile phone chargers deserve special mention.
When I did my audit I looked in particular for appliances which had lights on when they weren't actually being used. Standing in a room in the dark is a simple way to do this although it's a little embarrassing when someone walks in unexpectedly.
However, this doesn't work with sneaky things like mobile phone, iPod and other chargers. These nasty little power suckers use energy even when there's no appliance plugged into them. In retrospect the give-away is that the plugs are usually warm.
Once I realised this, we moved our chargers onto a separate power strip (4-plug adapter) which we turn off at the wall when we aren't charging anything.
Just shows you have to be vigilant!
Comments
Forget about plugging in at all if you find yourself in the car during the day at all. I got a small power inverter for the car lighter and just plug in when I'm traveling to or from work or doing other errands. You can use the charger that came with the unit (instead of having to buy an auto charger for each new phone) and get plenty of charge without having to access the grid. I never plug my cell phone into a wall outlet.
