Leave phone charger plugged in without microUSB cable

[Cs342]

Will this cause electricity wastage and is it bad to leave a charger plugged in all the time with the cable detached? 

[flibberdipper]

It will waste electricity, and it might mess it up, but I'm not really sure, to be honest. I've never done that...

[ForsakenLive]

yes, it will waste a tiny amount of power, not really recommended

[atrash]

nope.

[b45op]

Will this cause electricity wastage and is it bad to leave a charger plugged in all the time with the cable detached? 

 

It doesn't check to see if there is a cable before switching on so yes it would be using power. As to being bad well no its not that bad apart from the power wastage, I leave a few chargers like this plugged in at work due to many different types of charger cables and it is not all that bad.

 

A tip to know if something is using power, just put your hand on it and if it is warm it is using power.

[ZetZet]

It will use almost no electricity. But it can damage the charger. I forget my charger in the extension cord for days and it's been fine for 3 years so it's probably nothing bad.

[Earache]

I have three micro USB chargers in my room that I leave plugged in all the time. I think you'll be okay.

[Kyuubixchidori]

I leave my wall charger plugged in with the usb, but no phone 24/7 besides when i actually do charge.

 

at my moms we have 10+ chargers set up plugged in like that. so far we haven't had any issues. it might use a slight amount of electricity, but i feel like turning off your computer 5 minutes early will negate any energy it used. what I'm saying is its probably negligible amount. 

[Goredoth]

I thought chargers like this would be designed for exactly this. I constantly have chargers for all sorts of things plugged in so when I want to charge something the cable is on my desk or bedside table. The sockets are in hard to reach places it would be a pain to go and unplug the entire thing whenever I'm done charging.

 

I'm sure it uses a minuscule amount of power but nothing that you're going to notice. As for shortening life span I don't think that is an issue either. I've never had a charger die on me and I've been doing this my whole life along with most people I know (although I'm not so sure they've never had one die on them) only chargers I've had broken are because of cut or bent cables.

[LAwLz]

Yes it uses electricity by simply being plugged it. It uses next to nothing though, and I really mean next to nothing.

Most charges uses 0.1 watts or less.

Where I live, 60 watt light bulbs are fairly common. Changing one of those to a 4 watt LED light bulb would save as much power as unplugging 560 phone chargers.

The life span on chargers are very long as well, so I wouldn't worry about it breaking faster. In fact, constantly plugging it in and out would probably wear it out faster than just leaving it plugged in.

 

Bottom line: If you want to save power then change your light bulbs. Worrying about your phone charger wasting energy is silly when changing your refrigerator, light bulbs, vacuum cleaner, hair drier, heaters, dishwasher, microwave oven, regular oven etc, would all save hundreds or even thousands of times more energy.

[Cs342]

Yes it uses electricity by simply being plugged it. It uses next to nothing though, and I really mean next to nothing.

Most charges uses 0.1 watts or less.

Where I live, 60 watt light bulbs are fairly common. Changing one of those to a 4 watt LED light bulb would save as much power as unplugging 560 phone chargers.

The life span on chargers are very long as well, so I wouldn't worry about it breaking faster. In fact, constantly plugging it in and out would probably wear it out faster than just leaving it plugged in.

 

Bottom line: If you want to save power then change your light bulbs. Worrying about your phone charger wasting energy is silly when changing your refrigerator, light bulbs, vacuum cleaner, hair drier, heaters, dishwasher, microwave oven, regular oven etc, would all save hundreds or even thousands of times more energy.

Why would plugging it in and out cause it to break?

[ShadowCaptain]

Why would plugging it in and out cause it to break?

 

Not all chargers are the strongest things, often cheap plastic blocks with fragile pins

 

 

I literally never remove my chargers, there is a 10 gang extension under my bedside table, and I have just chargers plugged in 24/7, It seriously uses so little energy

[Cs342]

Not all chargers are the strongest things, often cheap plastic blocks with fragile pins

 

 

I literally never remove my chargers, there is a 10 gang extension under my bedside table, and I have just chargers plugged in 24/7, It seriously uses so little energy

What if I leave the charger plugged in with the microUSB cable attached and just lying on the floor? Will that cause even more electricity wastage?

[ShadowCaptain]

What if I leave the charger plugged in with the microUSB cable attached and just lying on the floor? Will that cause even more electricity wastage?

 

Nope, if you plug in lets say a 90 watt charger, and connect a laptop, the laptop creates a demand for 90 watts thus electricity flows

 

If you plug in the plug, but nothing into it, then nothing is being powered, there is no demand therefore no electricity will be used

Chargers CAN use a tiny amount of electricity doing nothing, but its so little it doesnt matter. 

 

In fact charging a modern smartphone uses VERY little power. Roughly charging a single iPhone over a 1 year period (assuming 0 to 100%) costs about $0.41. 

So even if you kept your phone on charge all year, you are only talking a few dollars total. 

 

I would assume a charger would use maybe 10% of that, so $0.04 a year or something (I have no idea but its probably even less)

[Real_PhillBert]

No it will not use any electricity. it is an open curcuit without a phone (or other device) plugged into it. It is exactly the same as asking if your house outlet's use electricity when they have nothing plugged into them.

[ShadowCaptain]

No it will not use any electricity. it is an open curcuit without a phone (or other device) plugged into it. It is exactly the same as asking if your house outlet's use electricity when they have nothing plugged into them.

 

Exactly

 

There will only be the tiniest bit of energy lost as there will be increased resistance in the charger but its probably negligible 

[chilicheeseburger]

I never unplug them. They all still work.

[Cs342]

I never unplug them. They all still work.

So leaving the microUSB cable in contact with a carpet floor won't do any harm?

[chilicheeseburger]

So leaving the microUSB cable in contact with a carpet floor won't do any harm?

I wouldn't worry about it.

But I am no electrician or anything like that so I can't tell you what can happen.

But I believe the chargers are built with that in mind.

[amintha1992]

i have had my original charger that came with my xperia T( more than 2 years old)

and its still on that same spot where i put it. 

 

it all depends on how good the charger is. if its a knockoff then it will probably burn out.

[Tigerbomb8]

My nexus charger will use 0.01$ worth of power if left plugged in for a whole year..