Do you unplug your power adapter and charger in a timely manner?

Thread Content

This post was last edited by ztj1118 on 2016-2-23 at 16:51. Living a low-carbon lifestyle starts with small actions! The large wiring panel on my computer desk is covered with sockets, and every time I turn off the lights and leave in the evening, there are still the LEDs on the power adapters glowing on the dark desk surface. I wonder if you’re *accustomed to unplugging power adapters that aren’t in use at all times, but have you ever thought about how these idle adapters end up wasting energy? You might find this topic a bit boring; after all, power adapters and chargers for mobile phones, digital cameras, etc., consume only a few watts of power even when they’re actively working, let alone when they’re sitting idle in standby mode. However, when power adapter manufacturers were looking for power-related data these past couple of days, they came across a table showing the cumulative energy consumption of power adapters. The figures in that table really surprised me. 　　This table is a bit complicated, so let me explain briefly. Taking a smartphone as an example, its power consumption during charging is around 4W, while the power adapter’s power consumption in standby mode is 0.5W. A typical user might charge their device for a total of 7 hours per week. If the power adapter isn’t unplugged, it will remain in standby mode for 161 hours. On an annual basis, charging a mobile phone consumes 1.456 kWh of electricity, while it consumes 4.186 kWh when in standby mode. At Beijing’s current price of 0.48 yuan per kilowatt-hour, each power adapter will cost you an additional 2 yuan over the course of a year due to unnecessary energy consumption in standby mode. In that case, it’s really not worth the hassle of having to remove it every time it’s used. 　　Hundreds of millions of kilowatt-hours! Is that figure not astonishing? 1 billion kilowatt-hours is enough to meet the electricity needs of around 1 million typical courtyards. In terms of carbon emissions, this amount of electricity would result in 7.85 million tons of CO2 emissions, and it would take approximately 8.2 million trees to absorb that amount of carbon dioxide. However, these are just the tip of the iceberg. The standby power consumption of products such as televisions, DVD players, and set-top boxes is usually less than 1W. Moreover, very few people have the habit of completely turning off the power to these audio-visual devices; most simply use the remote control to put them into standby mode. 　　Support a low-carbon lifestyle by starting with ourselves and with small actions; replace all the power strips at home with those that have switches, and develop the habit of turning off the power whenever possible.