Mark's Notebook

Power Play

This article doesn't specifically lay it out, but I think the legislation is trying to reduce the amount of power consumed by a charger "brick" when it's plugged into the wall, but nothing is plugged into it.

That is, if you leave your cell phone charger plugged into the wall 24/7, but you only plug your cell phone into it at night, instead of drawing power all the time, it would draw power only at night, when the cell phone is actually plugged into it.

I agree that it can be more convenient to leave all those bricks plugged in all the time, especially if you have a dedicated spot to do so. Anthro Corporation has even come out with a wall-mounted shadow box that consolidates the whole mess. But Mary and I don't leave our bricks plugged in all the time. We plug them in only when needed.

That is, unless you count the six bricks underneath my computer table ... the ones for DSL modem and router must be plugged in all the time. The ones for print server and wireless access point need to be plugged in only when those devices are in use, but that can happen at any time. The one for the Palm Pilot really needs to be plugged in only when I charge that guy, which is only about once a week. And the one that says Sony ... hmmm, it's not plugged into anything at all. I bet it's for the video camera, which I've plugged into the computer only once at most. OK, make that five bricks plugged in under the table.

Maybe there's something to this legislation after all.

Now, about this new California rule that prohibits disposing of batteries in the trash ...

... let's not go through this exercise again. Just learn to live with it. "It's good for your soul."

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Last updated Tuesday 13 May 2008