Is it a sin to leave your cell phone plugged in overnight?

Correct me if I'm wrong, but the cell phone is going to be using about the same power when its plugged in and fully charged as it does when it is unplugged. The difference is only that the power is coming from the outlet, rather than the battery in the phone. Without some calculations on how much would be drawn from the battery, simply from having the phone on over night, its hard to say what kind of power savings are available. I would guess its next to nothing, even less than they make it out to be in the article.

It says that an idle, but plugged in charger pulls around 2.3 watts. I always thought that switching chargers (most modern celphones comes with those) were able to switch themselves off (something with keeping a capacitor charged to kick the circuit online once something starts drawing power).

I think we need a new unit, the 'hamsterpower', for levels of energy use which are not worth thinking about. A hamster can generate about 0.15W, so rounding, I guess we could define 1 hamsterpower = 0.1W.<p><a href="http://otherpower.com/hamster.html" rel="nofollow">http://otherpower.com/hamster.html</a><p><a href="http://en.allexperts.com/q/Science-Kids-3250/Hamster-Power.htm" rel="nofollow">http://en.allexperts.com/q/Science-Kids-3250/Hamster-Power.h...</a>)

<i>Would it better for me to charge my electronics during my morning commute, by plugging them into the car charger?</i><p>A commute long enough to charge your electronics is probably a bigger "sin" than a cell phone plugged in overnight.

I recently got the Kill-a-Watt to test electricity usage by different devices. My laptop uses a mere $13 worth of electricity per year (And that is assuming that I leave it on constantly rather than closing the lid and letting it hibernate). Modern computing devices have become so efficient that they make little impact. If you want to save energy it is better to look at your refrigerator, stove, AC, and the other major electricity burners.

I leave my phone plugged in overnight, and when I get to work, I have it plugged into the USB drive on my computer. On the occasion where I'm driving, I've got an Alpine stereo with an iPhone adapter, and a mount for my phone, so I leave it plugged in there.<p>I haven't done any hard numbers, but my battery capacity doesn't seem like it's worn down from when I got the phone over two years ago.<p>Nonetheless, there are definitely more important things to worry about whether you're looking to cut back on your electric bill, or are trying to be more 'green.'

1) conservation of energy - if the phone is switched on, it is drawing current. If the latter is from the battery, you will pay for it (plus the charger's and DC-DC converter's inefficiencies) later.<p>2) battery wear - how much energy does it take to manufacture a new Li-ion pack?

It seems like the phone 'knows' when it is fully charged, so why don't phone manufacturers simply disable charging once it is full?

My iPhone stops charging when it's full. (I'm going to buy a killawatt and prove it soon)

I expect the MSM to try and keep their audience entertained with this inane <i>charging your electronic crap is killing the earth</i> meme. But I would think HN is the one place this meme would not be able to infect. Am I wrong?

It's disheartening that the Slate analysis does not calculate the approximate cost in dollars of alternate leaving-things-plugged-in strategies.<p>Even when prices are distorted by non-competitive markets, subsidies, regulation, and so forth, they remain vaguely related to the actual opportunity costs of a path of action.<p>According to this chart, the average retail price of a kilowatt-hour in the US varies from about 8¢ (West Virginia) to 22¢ (Hawaii).<p><a href="http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epm/table5_6_a.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/electricity/epm/table5_6_a.html</a><p>So given Slate's estimate that leaving a phone plugged in an unnecessary 8 hours every day for a year would use 6.5 kWh, we're talking about a cost over the whole year of 54¢ to $1.43.<p>Is a full year of fussing with the charger to minimize hours-plugged-in worth a savings of $1.43 in time or energy? If once, over many years of following this strategy, it means your phone dies at an inopportune moment, was it worth the years of savings?<p>We spend energy all the time for convenience, and $2/year for not having to micromanage a device that's supposed to make life easier is a bargain.