On Sun, 17 Jun 2007 18:04:34 -0400, mm wrote:

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.

electronic ones tend to be much smaller and thinner. But not
necessarily.,