Should you unplug chargers when you're not using them - tested

[waday]

I agree and disagree.

Definitely, the baseload power plants continuously run so that we always have power.. whenever we want for however long we want. The peaker plants will continue to operate 'on-demand'. No issues there.

However, if we increase the demand (needlessly, IMO), we need more power running all the time. If we decrease our demand, we can decrease the amount needed to be running constantly.

Why would you want to run the faucet all the time in the event you may need to wash your hands? You wouldn't, because it's a waste. Why not just turn the water off when you don't need it and turn it on when you do? That's what we do. So why don't we do the same with electricity? We can 'see' water running, but we can't 'see' electricity. We know when we're wasting water, but we don't know when we're wasting electricity.

Why not just unplug the charger and plug it in when you need to? We're a lazy society... we have chargers all over the house and car in the event our battery gets too low and we need an electricity fix immediately.

 

[astroNikon]

I unplug everything that I can before I leave the house, and make sure lights are off if they are not needed. I don't have any LEDs right now due to their cost but do use CFLs as I have a few left before I replace them with some LEDs. Yes, it may not save much but it all adds up. And I'm happy with my monthly bills from $46 to $166 (alot of A/C) usage this past year with 4 kids in my house.

I'd rather have the cash in my pocket rather than someone else's.

 

[Buckster]

I'm not saying it's the most efficient way to do it. It's just the way it's done at present.

Think about your car. It has an alternator. As long as the car is running, the alternator is turning and making electricity. Along with supplying all the electrical power needed to operate the various electrical devices in the car, if the battery needs topped off again after using some of its energy to start the vehicle, it does that.

But once the battery is topped off again, does turning the lights, radio, AC and other non-essential equipment on or off affect how much the alternator is putting out? No, it just keeps putting out what it puts out, whether you need it or not. If you don't use it, it's just gone.

The generators in a power plant work essentially the same way. They don't know or care how much the system needs - they just keep putting out the amount of energy that they're designed to put out.

Why don't we unplug chargers when not in use? We should, no doubt. But the truth is that we don't honestly care that much about the pocket change we'd save anyway. Spread 34 cents out over a year's time and it's a tenth of a penny per day. A penny on the ground is ten times that value, but the reality is that we can step right past it without even a second thought.

A society that's willing to pay dollars for coffee or a bottle of water doesn't care that much about a little pocket change.

 

[waday]

A society that's willing to pay dollars for coffee or a bottle of water doesn't care that much about a little pocket change.

The unfortunate truth.

People don't care until they have to.

 

[480sparky]

Here y'all are discussing teeny little wall warts when there's much bigger sources of power-usage black holes.

Your computer. Your printer. Your monitor. Your wireless router. Your flatbed scanner. Your microwave. Your washer & dryer. Your refrigerator. Your stove. Your oven.

Even when 'off', the electronics in most of our consumer goods these days are sucking up electrons.

Heck, even the freekin' cash register your local electric utility has plastered on the side of your house uses power even if you turn your main breaker off.

What's next? Taking bumper stickers off your car increases gas mileage?
































Let's talk about something sensible.




Like bacon.

 

[waday]

I don't think any of us disagree with you. Of course there are larger sources of power consumption in our homes and workplaces that constantly draw from the system. Our society would crumble without power.

But that doesn't mean we should ignore smaller, easier fixes to reduce power consumption and demand. Unplugging your charger is a lot easier than unplugging your appliances. And it only takes a second. That won't impact anyone's daily routine.

 

[runnah]

I'm going to leave two battery chargers plugged in just to counter act anyone who unplugs theirs!

 

[runnah]

I worked extensively in power plants and their associated sub-stations throughout Iowa and Minnesota while working on their communications systems.

One thing I learned from the folks that run those places is that it's a bit of a myth out here in power-consumption land that power is generated in a power plant at the level needed to meet demand. So, folks think that the more power that's needed out here in "vampire plug-ins" land, the more the power plant makes, and to do so it uses more raw materials, be it coal or whatever, to convert into that energy.

In reality, power plants consume raw materials and put out more than enough energy than is needed at all times, or they'd get caught short when demand suddenly goes up. The energy that's not used doesn't get stored for later use either. It's just gone, along with the raw materials it used to generate that lost power.

So, even if 300 million vampire plug-ins were unplugged, it wouldn't affect the amount of raw materials consumed by power plants, nor the amount of power they'd generate.

Just F.Y.I.

Yeah it's funny how few people actually understand how the power grid works or electricity for that matter.

"Oh no the electricity tank is getting low! Better fill it back up!"

 

[tirediron]

I'm not saying it's the most efficient way to do it. It's just the way it's done at present.

Think about your car. It has an alternator. As long as the car is running, the alternator is turning and making electricity. Along with supplying all the electrical power needed to operate the various electrical devices in the car, if the battery needs topped off again after using some of its energy to start the vehicle, it does that.

But once the battery is topped off again, does turning the lights, radio, AC and other non-essential equipment on or off affect how much the alternator is putting out? No, it just keeps putting out what it puts out, whether you need it or not. If you don't use it, it's just gone...

Noooooo... not quite. The car's voltage regulator (or PCM/EMU equivalent in new vehicles) controls the alternator output based on demand. The greater the demand, the greater the output. The greater the output, the greater the rotative resistance of the alternator due to the increased strength of the EM field. Thus, it is a fact that the more electrical load you place on your car's alternator, the lower your fuel economy.

This was one of the arguments used by people who were against the mandatory use of headlights during the day and/or daytime running lights. While it's true that using your headlights (or super-duper stereo, or whatever) will reduce fuel economy, the loss is very, very, very small, BUT... there is no "lost" electricity. Un-needed power is simply not there as it's never produced in the first place.

 

[runnah]

I can only hope that someday science will finally truly understand how electricity works.

 

[runnah]

I'm not saying it's the most efficient way to do it. It's just the way it's done at present.

Think about your car. It has an alternator. As long as the car is running, the alternator is turning and making electricity. Along with supplying all the electrical power needed to operate the various electrical devices in the car, if the battery needs topped off again after using some of its energy to start the vehicle, it does that.

But once the battery is topped off again, does turning the lights, radio, AC and other non-essential equipment on or off affect how much the alternator is putting out? No, it just keeps putting out what it puts out, whether you need it or not. If you don't use it, it's just gone...

Noooooo... not quite. The car's voltage regulator (or PCM/EMU equivalent in new vehicles) controls the alternator output based on demand. The greater the demand, the greater the output. The greater the output, the greater the rotative resistance of the alternator due to the increased strength of the EM field. Thus, it is a fact that the more electrical load you place on your car's alternator, the lower your fuel economy.

This was one of the arguments used by people who were against the mandatory use of headlights during the day and/or daytime running lights. While it's true that using your headlights (or super-duper stereo, or whatever) will reduce fuel economy, the loss is very, very, very small, BUT... there is no "lost" electricity. Un-needed power is simply not there as it's never produced in the first place.

Noooooo... not quite.

The regulator turns the alternator on or off based on the voltage coming out of the battery. All the electronics run off the battery, hence why you turn the batter on and use the radio while the car is off. The regulator's jobs is to "sense" when the voltage coming out of the battery dips below a certain amount, normally under 13.5 volts. When it dips below the regulator say "oh ****, we need more magic pixies to refill the battery!" and it turns on the alternator and recharges the battery to the 14.5 or so volts. The alternator generates the same amount of AC current any time it's on.

No different than a shop air compressor. Set it to xyz PSI, do some wrenching, drop the pressure and the motor kicks on to fill up the tank again. The air gets filled up at the same rate no matter how empty or full the tank is.

 

[Buckster]

After starting, you can remove the battery from the car, and everything will keep working, including the radio.

That said, whether my car analogy stands or fails, the point remains that power plants don't generate less power because people unplug their chargers.

 

[AlanKlein]

Get ready, I'm going to poo-poo this story. Sorry for being a Debbie Downer.

I understand from one person's perspective, it doesn't seem like all that much. It's only $0.34 per person per year. Not bad, right?

Assuming the author's numbers are accurate... now take that 2.628 kilowatt hours (kWh) and multiply it by approximately 275,000,000 adults (over the age 18) in the US (source: Kids Count Data Center). (Although, I should probably include kids, because they have so many electronics nowadays.) I'm assuming all adults would have similar vampire power demand as the author.

So, now we have 722,700,000 kWh being used by chargers that are not in use. Multiply that by the author's $0.1298 per kWh, and we have a cool $94 million dollars being wasted a year. Ouch.

Not only is that money wasted, power is wasted. Power has quite the negative effect on the environment. We waste a heck of a lot more than just $0.34 a year per person. Billions of gallons of water are withdrawn EVERY DAY here in PA for power plants. Now include the rest of the US. Oof.

Not only that, other natural resources such as coal, oil, natural gas, and plutonium have to be mined and transported to the facilities. Where does all the waste go? Back into the earth as waste. Water withdrawn can impinge/entrain aquatic communities in the intake systesm. Heated wastewater has negative impacts on the aquatic community downstream of the facility.

I read a similar article from someone in California a few months ago that essentially said it was ok to leave the water running while brushing/etc, because 'so little water' is used. Yes, by one single faucet, not a lot is used. For the population as a whole, it's another story. A bad story.

I'll be the first to admit that I don't always unplug when I should, but I think articles such as this give a false impression of our impact on the environment. They pull a very tiny piece of the entire process and say its ok. We need to look from cradle to grave.. look at the process holistically.

These articles try to justify our laziness. IMO, that's not right.

End rant.

I agree. Shut off your faucets and unplug your chargers.

 

[astroNikon]

When I turn on my car A/C my mpg drops like a rock, acceleration suffers etc. I actually turn it off before I start at a red light so I can get going normally.
so .. how ever that works.

 

[tirediron]

Noooooo... not quite.

The regulator turns the alternator on or off based on the voltage coming out of the battery. All the electronics run off the battery, hence why you turn the batter on and use the radio while the car is off. The regulator's jobs is to "sense" when the voltage coming out of the battery dips below a certain amount, normally under 13.5 volts. When it dips below the regulator say "oh ****, we need more magic pixies to refill the battery!" and it turns on the alternator and recharges the battery to the 14.5 or so volts. The alternator generates the same amount of AC current any time it's on.

No different than a shop air compressor. Set it to xyz PSI, do some wrenching, drop the pressure and the motor kicks on to fill up the tank again. The air gets filled up at the same rate no matter how empty or full the tank is.

Okay, I freely admit that while I'm a decent shade-tree mechanic, the electrical system is very definitely my weak area. That said, based on my understanding, I think you might be confusing voltage and current. Yes, the voltage is constant (more or less), but the current varies according to demand. Voltage is analgous to pressure, current to volume, in your air compressor analogy, it always produces 100psi, but will vary between 10 and 20 CFM, depending on load.

The primary functions of the battery in a car are (1) to provide initial power for the starter motor; and (2) to provide the initial excitier or field voltage necessary for the alternator to work. Once the engine is running normally, the alternator becomes self-sustaining. Yes, you can run all of your accessories off of the battery, but that's a result of the parallel circuit design of the battery installation.

If your car is running during the day, with no lights, heater, AC, stereo, etc, then the load is pretty much only that required by the ignition system, let's say 5 amps (just picking a number out of the air). To produce that 5 amp output the alternator requires a 1 amp exciter current. This is all done at (about) 13.5 volts, but if all of a sudden you turn on the lights, the AC, and the 8,000,000 watt bass-boosted stereo in the trunk, the demand might jump from 5 to 85 amps. That 85 amp output requires, let's say a 10 amp exciter current, as the exciter and output currents rise, the strength of the EM field in the alternator increases and with it, the resistance in the alternator, hence the reduction in fuel economy as load/demand increases. <-- As I said, that's my understanding. I was wrong once before, it could happen again...