PulseAugur
EN
LIVE 01:18:51

Phone chargers consume electricity even when idle, adding to energy bills

Phone chargers continue to draw a small amount of electricity, known as standby power, even when not actively charging a device. While a single charger's consumption is negligible, typically between 0.1 to 0.5 watts, the cumulative effect in homes with multiple chargers can lead to a slight increase in annual energy costs, estimated between $0.50 to $4 per charger. To mitigate this, consumers can opt for energy-efficient multi-device chargers, use smart outlets to remotely disable chargers, or simply unplug them when not in use. AI

RANK_REASON Article discusses a common consumer technology issue and provides practical advice, but does not announce a new product, research, or policy.

Read on Engadget →

AI-generated summary · Google Gemini · from 1 sources. How we write summaries →

Phone chargers consume electricity even when idle, adding to energy bills

How we ranked this

Signal score
0 / 100
Composite score across the factors below. Higher = stronger signal that this story matters right now.
Newsworthiness bucket
Commentary
Article discusses a common consumer technology issue and provides practical advice, but does not announce a new product, research, or policy.
Source corroboration
Single-source cluster
Only one publisher covered this so far. Single-source stories can still rank when the publisher is high-authority, but they lack cross-source corroboration.
Topics
infra, other
Editorial topic classification. Feeds into how the story surfaces on /topic/<slug> hub pages and into the per-entity coverage mix.
AI-industry relevance
Low
Off-topic or adjacent — cluster remains reachable but doesn't surface in AI-industry rankings.
Story freshness
100 days old
Aged out of breaking-news scoring windows; ranking reflects the durable signal from the full source set.

Full methodology in our editorial standards.

COVERAGE [1]

  1. Engadget TIER_1 English(EN) · [email protected] (Lawrence Bonk) ·

    Is your phone charger wasting electricity when it's not charging?

    Homes with many phone chargers pay more even when they're not using them.