DxOMark shares an infographic showing that leaving a smartphone charger plugged in when not in use can have a big impact globally.
Knowing when to charge your phone is an art. Everyone would like to preserve their battery for as long as possible. But what about the consumption of the chargers that we plug into our wall outlets? On the occasion of Earth Day on April 22, DxOMark – a laboratory known for its photo, audio, autonomy, charge and screen tests – wanted to shed some light on this subject.
Before discovering the interesting figures of the DxOMark report, it is good to recall some information. First of all, once your smartphone has reached 100% battery, the charger only sends energy in spurts, just enough to keep the device powered up. It only requires a few hundred milliwatts depending on the duration. Then, if you leave the charger plugged in, but you unplug the smartphone, the consumption drops to only a few tens of milliwatts.
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In other words, it has no real effect on your electricity bill while the environmental impact seems limited. In reality, it really isn’t.
A significant consumption on a global scale
DxOMark shares an infographic that undermines this reasoning. The French laboratory specifies that the fact of recharging the 5.2 billion smartphones used in the world, we consume 20 Terawatt-hours in one year. We learn that this is equivalent to all the electricity consumption of the Brittany region over a year.
Above all, residual consumption – that generated by chargers that remain plugged in even without being connected to a device – casually represents 10% of this overall electricity consumption.
A good reminder, if necessary, that even actions that seem trivial in everyone’s daily life can take on very large proportions when considered on the macro level. DxOMark obviously seeks to educate the public so that we adopt better behaviors.
If everyone involved did indeed make this effort, that would be great news. However, it should not be implied that this kind of good initiatives will be enough to compensate for the climate inaction that some deplore with politicians or certain large companies.
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