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Forums › Gadgets, robotics, home automation, electronics (including wearables) › Does USB chargers and various other power bricks/adapters use/consume any "electricity" when no devices attached?
ren1316

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#232089 29-Mar-2018 08:47
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Wondering if I should leave them plugged in the wall socket (without any devices attached) or not?

 

Or are they like other appliances when on standby uses a nominal amount?

 

John.

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Aredwood
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  #1985252 29-Mar-2018 09:04

They definitely do still use a small amount of power. As they have things like voltage regulator circuits that have to operate to maintain power at the output. Even if that power is not being used.

There are actually standby power efficiency ratings for power supplies now. So modern power supplies standby usage is actually very low. If you are having trouble with high power bills, there are plenty of other things that you should be checking first.

Of course if your power supply is actually something like this
Click to see full size

Then it would have a lot of standby usage.

Although a big edge case is with some off grid power systems. I have an uncle with an off grid system in his batch. His inverter can detect when a device is plugged into a power socket, and the inverter switches from standby to full operation automatically. Except a phone charger is enough to bring the inverter out of standby. And if that happens, the inverter then draws 3A or so from the batteries just to provide mains power at the sockets. He gets a massive power saving just by using a 12V phone charger directly from his battery bank. Instead of using a mains phone charger plugged into the inverter.







Linux
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  #1985261 29-Mar-2018 09:29
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Yes for sure but very very little

 

Linux

mdf

mdf
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  #1985367 29-Mar-2018 12:25
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Unless it is physically warm to the touch, not much (but some).

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