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Default vampires and power usage

On Fri, 15 Jun 2007 15:09:42 -0500, "dnoyeB" wrote:

On Wed, 13 Jun 2007 14:51:20 -0400, Zephyr wrote:

Hey folks,

I'm curious about power consumption of things like the power supply for
my dell laptop
its and AC/DC adaptor, and when the unit is charging my laptop it gets
quite warm.
from that I infer that its using a fair amount of power.


traditionally, transformers do use power even when their device is not on.
There is loss in the field. But more modern electronic ones do not
require anywhere near as much. Recent cell phones I think are electronic
transformers. Those I tend to just leave plugged in, LED and all!!


It's probably hard to tell the modern ones from the older ones. They
all have cases made of plastic, which is the only clue I usually get
for "new".

I've taken apart some of the almost cube=shaped plastic ones and all
they have inside is a metal core transformer and, rarely and for big
ones, a fuse wire. The big ones get less hot because they spread the
heat over more area.

Is 2 to 2.5 cents per 24 hour day not worth worrying about? 2.5 cents
is 9 dollars a year, times however many of these one has. Maybe 10? =
90 dollars a year, plus 90 dollars of wasted electricity and fuel at
the electric generating plant, plus half of year as heat that people
use AC to remove, another 90 or 180 dollars.

Not that I unplug everything. It's easy enough to do so where the
receptacles are handy, but where they are behind the bed, or behind
the bookshelves, not so easy.