DIYbanter - View Single Post - GFCI outlets

Dave Martindale

(DA) writes:

I have an outlet that is located on the kitchen isle and is convenient for
charging cellphones. So, I have the chargers plugged in and when we leave
the house I would like to simply push the "Test" button to kill the
chargers. When we come back, I would press "Reset" and start charging
again. I am trying to eliminate the phantom loads but if it will wear GFCI
outlet out too soon it would make no sense, so I'm trying to find out if
this would be a good idea.

First, see if you have a phantom load worth worrying about.

We charge our cellphones with a Motorola "travel charger". It's clearly
a little switching power supply because of the wide input voltage range.
When it's not connected to a phone, its input current is undetectable
(meaning under 10 mA) on a power monitor. That's under 1 W, possibly
far under 1 W, and not worth doing anything about.

Dave