Leave help: If u leave a phone charger plugged in, even tho its not charging anything, does it still use electricity? - Help.com

Yes.

Wall adaptors do use power even if nothing’s connected to them. Some may use very little, but others are woeful energy wasters. If it’s at all possible, unplug them or switch off the outlet they’re on.

The charger itself draws electricity from the outlet whenever it’s plugged in and so there is a small amount of energy flowing through the charger - at least that’s the best way I can put it. Maybe someone else can explain it better.

Keep in mind I’m not an electric engineer or electrician.

Leaving a phone charger plugged in without the cellphone plugged in is a waste of electricity. It’s not a very big drain, but it’s there and it costs you a tiny, tiny, bit more on your electric bills.

Without going into too much detail/complexity: the purpose of a phone charger or “adapter” is to adapt the electricity coming from your outlet into a kind that the cellphone can use. This process is not perfectly efficient and because of the way it works, it drains a small amount of power even if you are not charging your cellphone.

Now if you are interested in the more technical answer, I will do my best to do so:

To make the electricity coming from the outlet (Alternating Current) more suitable for the cellphone, the adapter must do at least two things. First it needs to step-down the high voltage coming from the outlet to a lower voltage that the cellphone can handle. This is done by using a transformer. The transformer is the main culprit, a transformer is basically a couple of wound-up coils of wire on an iron core. The outlet is connected to one of the coils, and this uses up a little bit of power even when you are not charging your cellphone since there is no switch on an adapter to disconnect the transformer coil from the plug.

Also, an adapter needs to convert the AC (Alternating Current) to DC (Direct Current). This is done by using diodes to rectify the AC to DC. This process can also cause some more of the power drain, costing you a tiny, tiny bit more on your electric bill.

My technical answer lacks a better, and more detailed, explanation of AC, DC, transformers, diodes, and etc. You should look up these on Wikipedia or do a Google search if you would like to learn more.

Below is a related link to a Wikipedia article that explains battery chargers, which are basically the same as cellphone chargers.

Read more: http://wiki.answers.com/Q/Does_leavin…

Well in simple terms, alternating current needs to step down to direct current , so you can charge your phone or devices.. It does this by way of a transformer.. That transformation of current, is what is being used.. If you feel the charger and its warm, its using current

The amount is small, but definitely yes it still uses electricity

The cost is around 2 cents to 10 cents a month more on your electric bill. That’s not much.

Beside that ALL devices connected to an electric lead consume electricity (minimally), just because of the connected power cord.

Even if you deactivate all fuses in your apartment there will be still some little consumption for the support of the lead from the switch board of your house up to the fuses of your apartment.

I had this argument with my GF, she said it still uses electricity but I dont belive it.

georgesummer wrote:
I had this argument with my GF, she said it still uses electricity but I dont belive it.

Believe it or not. The facts are clear.

yess

i m pursuing engineering and i know it very well that it will not consume electricity at all …….