[IxDA Discuss] iPhone, who's buying... /sustainable design

[Alexander Baxevanis]

Just to make this clear, the USB cable (and most probably, the dock)
are completely "passive" devices, and will not consume any energy
unless a phone is plugged in the other end.

On 7/12/07, David Malouf <dave.ixd at gmail.com> wrote:
> I'm sorry. I don't think my question was clear.
>
> If I leave a USB cable plugged into my desktop or laptop and Iphone
> dock is at the other end, but no phone, am I draining more
> electricity? Just curious. What if I only use the cable and there is
> no device at all?
>
> David Malouf
> dave at synapticburn.com
> http://synapticburn.com
> http://ixda.org
> Sent from my iPhone
>
> On Jul 12, 2007, at 3:45 AM, "Alexander Baxevanis" <alex.baxevanis at gmail.com
>  > wrote:
>
> > <putting on my electrical engineer hat>
> >
> > USB charging obviously drains some energy from your laptop's battery
> > or makes it drain more power from the plug if it's plugged in. So it's
> > not 'free', in some cases it may actually be less efficient because of
> > more conversions in the energy path. e.g. from the plug to the laptop
> > battery, then from the laptop battery to USB, from USB to the correct
> > voltage for iPhone charging etc. When you have a USB cable connected
> > to your computer with nothing on the other end, it does not consume
> > any power.
> >
> > By the way, I don't think it's rocket science to make a charger that
> > consumes nothing when the phone is not plugged in. But it would
> > definitely add to the design and manufacturing cost and with mobile
> > manufacturers' profit margins being pushed down, investing in
> > eco-friendly chargers is probably still low in their list of
> > priorities.
> >
> > A couple of months ago, Nokia launched "the first mobile phones to
> > include alerts encouraging people to unplug the charger once the
> > battery is full" (http://www.nokia.com/A4136001?newsid=1125979).
> > Sounds great on paper, but are you really going to pay attention to
> > this alert when you're grabbing your phone and rushing out of the
> > house? Or will it be just a little annoyance that people will just
> > learn to ignore?
> >
> > If we want to pursue sustainable design, it has to be like any other
> > form of design, taking into account how people behave.
> >
> > On 7/11/07, David Malouf <dave at ixda.org> wrote:
> >> question to Jeff,
> >> Does using a USB to charge (leaving the cable in the USB port, also
> >> drain electricity like leaving a charger in the wall? Just a
> >> question. B/c I charge using USB w/ the dock and not using the plug.
> >> (my blackberry did this as well).
>