Nearly everyone I know has heard something about Vampire power draw, but in case you haven’t, this is when energy is sucked out through chargers and converters left plugged in for extended periods of time. It’s much the same way a vampire would suck blood from its host, hence the nickname.
Wall chargers draw power even when their associated electronic device is turned off or completely detached, and they release excess energy in the form of heat. Vampire-draw culprits include everything from mobile phones to Blu-ray players and Xboxs, and they aren’t just a problem here in North America. Anywhere people plug in older chargers or converters is being impacted.
Thankfully, AT&T is developing solutions to reduce mobile phone vampire draw. At the CTIA Wireless show, AT&T took first prize in the Green Solutions category for its new ZERO iPhone charger. This eco-friendly charger uses advanced energy-saving technology to automatically shut down when any connected device is fully charged or unplugged. It eliminates 100% of vampire power draw and stays cooler as a result.
According to AT&T, when conventional chargers are left plugged in or not actively charging, they can draw as much as 5x-20x the energy actually stored in a cell phone or other device’s battery. These snippets of energy add up when you consider all the devices plugged in at any given time, and especially over years of use. The ZERO charger cuts this waste down to zero and it can charge any USB-connected device or mobile phone. Not only does it eliminate energy waste for your iPhone, it also saves you from buying extra adapters… which in turn saves plastic and shipping energy.
According to the US Department of Energy: “In the U.S., the total amount of electricity that flows through internal and external power adapters is nearly 470 billion kWh per year or about 12 percent of the nation’s annual electricity consumption. During the process these devices consume about 120 billion kWh per year of electricity and turn it into heat, costing the nation over $12 billion in electric bills.”
That’s a lot of power we could be saving! And it’s great to see companies like AT&T stepping up to the challenge. The ZERO charger is being offered for a limited time at a 40% discount. Just follow this link to the AT&T website to take advantage of the introductory offer. From the mockups I’ve seen, it looks compact and fairly stylish. The two-pronged 120V plug-in folds nicely into the body of the charger, which makes it easy to pack and hard to break.
Also worth considering are solar charging devices like the Solio or HYmini and kinetic chargers like the YoGen.
