Saving Energy: A Myth? – EVST 100: Intro to the Environment

Since deciding to change my sustainable behavior to unplugging my chargers, I have noticed a huge difference. I am increasingly aware of the fact when I leave my chargers in and have found myself unplugging them almost any time I leave my room- even the extension chord that is behind my bed and quite difficult to get to. Interestingly enough, this behavior has already become habit for me without much effort. I think maybe because I am so used to being contentious about my other sustainable behaviors such as; only using one paper towel, always bringing my own water bottle, and recycling whatever I can, that adding one new minor habit wasn’t too big of a deal for me. I definitely still forget sometimes but for the most part I have been pretty good about it.

Upon research of how my behavior change is actually helping the environment I was pretty shocked. I found multiple websites explaining how, even though unplugging chargers saves some energy, it is a pretty miniscule amount in the grand scheme of things. One website was a blog detailing an experiment the blogger did. He plugged in three phone chargers, a laptop, a pocket PC, battery charger and attached a power-measuring meter. With all 6 chargers plugged in, the meter only read 1 Watt. He deduced that phone chargers consume less that .5W when left plugged in when the total power consumption of a person daily is 50000W. Seems pretty small in comparison!

http://www.inference.phy.cam.ac.uk/sustainable/charger/

PHONE CHARGERS THE TRUTH

The website I linked (different than the blog) also spoke of what little impact leaving chargers in has. According to the Lawrence Berkeley National Library, the average cell phone draws 3.68 watts of power while it’s charging and only 2.24 when it’s already charged. Ipods are similar- they only take about 0.25 to 0.4 watts of energy when fully charged. As quoted by Cambridge Professor David MacKay, obsessively unplugging your charger is like “bailing the Titanic with a teaspoon. By all means do it, but be aware of how tiny a gesture it is.” He noted that keeping your phone charger unplugged all year is like skipping one hot bath. So maybe I should be reducing my water consumption instead?

Virginia Hoyt says:

April 22, 2014 at 7:17 pm

I have been finding a lot of the same numbers Rachel and I find it very interesting that our chargers have such a small impact. However, while researching that I found that there are other very consumptive vampire energies that I hadn’t considered. I found that not-in-use TV’s, DVD players, hairdryers, etc…all suck a ton of energy. I figure for at least some of our group unplugging these things would be worthwhile and have an impact. Another interesting tidbit I came across was in regards to having a phone plugged into its charger when fully charged. I found out that a fully charged phone on a charger consumes a large portion of the energy it consumes while charging. Hopefully these are some little changes we can add to our challenge. Sounds like you’re doing a great job with this, keep up the good work!

Lia Embil says:

April 22, 2014 at 8:30 pm

When we think of how we negatively affect our environment our first thought is usually energy consumption. In reality this is actually a fraction of what is actually causing negative climate change. It may not even make a difference but it makes a difference for us and for the way we function.

We just need to change our negative habits into positive ones. If we make it a habit to pull out the plugs instead of leaving them in, we can consider our selves to have made a contribution to positive climate change, even if it is a very tiny contribution.

Liam Kearney says:

April 23, 2014 at 2:40 am

Its interesting and unfortunate to learn about how minuscule the difference there is in unplugging chargers. I agree with you with the fact that the majority of people won’t change a behavior unless the behavior change results in economic benefit. I think you is great that you have noticed a beneficial change in your new sustainable act. I commend you for having the ability to focus on your new behavior while I am rushing out of my room and not being able to pull out the power strip. Keep up your good habits

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