Q: What’s the most energy-efficient way to charge my phone?
A: Sometimes I feel so analog – mostly when I scramble for change to drop a couple of coins in a pay phone. The curbside relics are so crusty, you know the last lonely soul to use one must have been pissed that their cellphone died.
Then there are the even lonelier few who like me don’t own a cell to begin with. One day I’ll cave and buy a mobile phone myself. Maybe even this decade, though I feel myself getting closer to succumbing.)
In the meantime, the cellphone industry isn’t hurting. Now, I’ve written about the eco and potential health impacts of the phones themselves, but what about their chargers?
According to the UK-based GSMA (the global mobile industry association), anywhere from 51,000 to 82,000 tonnes of replacement chargers are sold every year to those replacing/upgrading their phones. If only we could use the same charger with every phone, no matter its make or model.
Lo and behold, the GSMA has organized a global initiative to get major cell manufacturers using the same universal charger by 2012. Accor ding to the industry org’s number-crunching, the switch to a universal charger should slash greenhouse gases by 1.4 million tonnes a year from manufacturing and shipping.
Bonus: that charger will use up to three times less standby/vampire energy than regular chargers (it’s had to meet the toughest Euro efficiency standards – better than Energy Star’s) and ideally will keep up to 51,000 tonnes of duplicate chargers out of the waste stream.
Companies that are in on it include Nokia, LG, Motorola, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Rogers, Wind, as well as Apple and others.
By the way, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, if every phone sold in the U.S. alone in 2011 had used an Energy Star charger, the energy saved could light 290,000 homes for a year. It would, by their estimates, prevent well over 430,000 tons of greenhouse gas emissions.
Several phone companies offer Energy Star chargers, but since they also sell plenty of non-Energy Star chargers, make sure you ask. LG’s and Nokia’s all meet the Energy Star standard anyway. But did you know you can go way beyond traditional cellphone chargers and bypass conventional energy consumption altogether? HYmini Deluxe’s wind and solar charger can be strapped to your bike (about $80, modernoutpost.com). Twenty minutes of pedalling gives you four minutes of talk time on a 3G mobile (more on a less power-hungry phone.) That’s not a lot, but you can also load up the battery in a wall socket or computer. Get yourself a $10 crank attachment, too.
Noika makes a cheaper, more powerful bicycle charger kit, but it’s a shame the company has no plans to bring it to North America. (Snag one if you’re in Europe, though.)
Not much of a winter cyclist? Stick to a straight up-solar charger that will effortlessly juice phones, iPods, MP3 players, cameras, GPSs and more. MEC carries a bunch, like the Solio Classic2 Solar Charger. This hybrid charger siphons power from the sun or a computer and stores it in an internal battery via three solar panels and USB plug. Plus, the newest model is 20 per cent more efficient than older ones. Fully charged, it will juice a typical cellphone more than twice or power 55 hours of music.
An hour of direct sunshine provides about 30 minutes of talk time or 75 minutes of music (mec.ca).
You could also just charge up your cell on your computer while you’re working/facebooking/gaming via a USB charger. It’s overkill power consumption if you’re keeping your computer booted solely to juice your phone, but if you’re working while you charge, it’s six of one, half dozen.
Just don’t leave devices plugged in after they’re ready, and get that cell on a headset so you don’t sign your brain up for a radiation experiment.
Got a question?
Send your green queries to ecoholic@nowtoronto.com
