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AT&T introduces automatic ZERO charger to reduce wasted energy

By | March 17, 2010, 8:47am PDT

Summary: AT&T has a little something green for us today. No, it’s not a green iPhone. It’s the ZERO Charger, which automatically cuts off power from the wall socket even when left plugged in, which should save you a whole lot of green in your wallet as well.

AT&T has a little something green for us today. No, it’s not a green iPhone. It’s the ZERO Charger, which automatically cuts off power from the wall socket even when left plugged in, which should save you a whole lot of green in your wallet as well.

According to AT&T, 80% of mobile phone users leave their chargers plugged in wall socket often. At the rate of three to four times per week for eight hours, that’s equivalent to being enough energy to power 24,000 homes for a year, or brew three to four million cups of coffee each day. Wowza.

Obviously if you’re wasting that much energy, you’re probably paying for it too.

So to reduce and prevent that problem, the AT&T Zero Charger hosts a “block and cable” design for compatibility with a larger number of handheld devices. Basically, the Zero automatically recognizes when the cell phone is not connected to the charger, blocking power from the wall socket. So you can leave the charger in the wall without worrying about it.

And for the green icing on top, the packaging will be made with 100% recycled paper. AT&T will release the charger in May, and while a price hasn’t been given yet, it should be comparable to other replacement chargers.

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Rachel King is a staff writer for ZDNet based in San Francisco.

Disclosure

Rachel King

Rachel King has no business relationships, affiliations, investments, or other potential conflicts of interest relating to the content posted in this blog.

Biography

Rachel King

Rachel King is a staff writer for CBS Interactive in San Francisco. Before serving as a contributing editor at ZDNet in New York City for two years, she previously worked for The Business Insider, FastCompany.com, CNN's San Francisco bureau and the U.S. Department of State. Rachel has also written for MainStreet.com, Irish America Magazine and the New York Daily News, among others. Rachel has a B.A. in Mass Communications and History from the University of California, Berkeley and a M.S. in Journalism from Columbia University, where she served as art director for the student magazine, Plated.

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Thats why your cells only charge 100-200 times
SiO2 19th Mar 2010
Rechargeable batteries last much longer if you deep-cycle them, ie charge fast and fully, then discharge to about 20%, not dead.

This extends the life of a NiCD the most because of the 'memory effect' (A drop in voltage when the cell reaches the point where it was charged from last).

Most phones use LiIon cells instead that dont suffer from memory effect, however keeping them topped off grows dendrites (whiskers of metal) that pierce the polymer film separating the plates and shorts them out. This means it wont take a charge any more.

A typical LIon should last for near to 1000 charge cycles before it begins to fade if treated properly.

All batteries get hot as they discharge - spend 20 minutes on the mobile and then plug in the charger and the battery will be hot and thus store less than 80% than at cold. Leave the phone to cool before charging. Also heat lowers the internal resistance meaning the wallwart simply pours more juice through it.

The best case is to buy two batteries and swap them in use, charge them from a good external charger with charge sensor and they will each last a lot longer than one, charge faster and therefore consume less electricity to do so.

Whats really pitiful is that an Edison Battery (Nickel-Iron, early 1900s and comparable to NiCD in performance)would outlast hundreds of mobiles even if abused during that time. Most people actually replace their mobile before the battery is wrecked anyway.

Hope that helps.
The article makes this sound like a lot of power. It turns out that the 170 mw a normal charger draws during standby will consume a grand total of 1.3 kwh of energy consumption over the course of a year. The amounts to about 13 cents per year. Given how people spend money, its a lot more exciting to imagine being a part of saving the energy usage of 24,000 homes per year than it is to imagine 13 cents per year. The first case caused the author to say WOWSA!, The second case makes me wonder why this warrants even a mention.
0 Votes
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I think...
Rick_K 17th Mar 2010
They are using a number based on total phone sales. I can imagine that
the 1.3 kWh multiplied by 2 million phones (example) come up to a scary
number that they use to push this device. It is all about how you use the
numbers to support your case. Saying it cost the average cell phone
owner 13 cents a year, is nothing; but when you say this product can
save $260,000 it makes for a good Press Release.
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Waste to produce them?
SMparky Updated - 18th Mar 2010
It makes you wonder how much energy it takes to make the device and transport it to people. It's a step in the right direction, but to be green it should be included with a phone - every phone - so you don't have to make a special trip to buy it.

It's definitely a good step though. The standard wall wart we use today should be phased out completely because of all the wasted energy.

I've been burned (not literally) by many green devices. My front load washer smells - a common problem I found out later. My front load dryer doesn't dry the clothing, so the "green" function is useless if I have to run it twice as long. Same with my green dishwasher. At least half my compact fluorescent bulbs have burnt out, even though they claim to last longer. I should have just kept with my non-green stuff until to wore out. All the manufacturing and transportation of my green products likely offset any environmental benefits.
yah! more "green energy" BS. I'm sure this new charger
will be $15 more than the standard charger, so it'll only
take 115 years to make up for the extra $$...but I'll
have a self-righteous feeling of doing something good for
the planet and ATT's bottom line.
Right-wing deniers of everything from history to science
appear to spend all their spare hours seeking articles
promoting frugal common sense - to sneer and whine.

The dweeb named edorphine44 seems to be as math-
challenged as most of the breed.

Perish the thought he should do "something good for the
planet".

Pitiful.
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... is the fact that you're acting like 1.3 kwh over a period of year is
such a horrible thing.

I think it's a waste that all these greenies are going gaga over
"vampire" power draw from things such as your TV set, microwave
oven, computer, and AV equipment in standby mode. I'm sorry, but I'm
not going to pull the plug on my stuff just because it'll save me a total
of $1 a month in my power bill - the convenience of picking up the
remote is worth the cost.

Also, if you're going to go after people for power usage, you're better
off to go after light bulbs (CFLs use 50-80% less energy per lumen
and LEDs are more efficient for low level and spotlight usage),
appliances (I switched from a 1980's central A/C to a 15 SEER unit, and
it literally cut my power bill by 60%), windows (not the OS), and
refrigeration appliances (I upgraded my fridge from a unit that drew 8
amps while operating to a unit that draws 5.5 and doesn't run as often
due to better insulation). The thing is that using more energy efficient
lighting and appliances around the home is what will cut pollution the
most, and not going after AC adapters for cell phones and other
devices.
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Idea to Fight Wasted and Waisted
Iratus Vir Updated - 18th Mar 2010
Are we really so lazy & distant from self-responsibility, let alone self-reliance, that we expect someone to R&D, and market, and sell a device when we could burn some calories by getting our collective butt up and SIMPLY PULL THE THING OUT OF THE WALL?

Burn some calories AND help the environment (and make my grandfather proud- I fondly recall him sending us through the house to switch off lights).

People would rather bait each other on political leanings than use common sense-

Yeesh
BTW - for dunderheads who presumed a price increase, the
ZERO will sell for the same price as the "old" charger.
0 Votes
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Isn?t it better to have the phone from wall power all night than use the battery which would require me to replace the battery sooner? Since the cells in the battery can only be recharged 100-200 times, then they are dead, I want to use the wall power as much as possible. It seems to me that it is better 'green' to not have to replace the battery as often.
Rechargeable batteries last much longer if you deep-cycle them, ie charge fast and fully, then discharge to about 20%, not dead.

This extends the life of a NiCD the most because of the 'memory effect' (A drop in voltage when the cell reaches the point where it was charged from last).

Most phones use LiIon cells instead that dont suffer from memory effect, however keeping them topped off grows dendrites (whiskers of metal) that pierce the polymer film separating the plates and shorts them out. This means it wont take a charge any more.

A typical LIon should last for near to 1000 charge cycles before it begins to fade if treated properly.

All batteries get hot as they discharge - spend 20 minutes on the mobile and then plug in the charger and the battery will be hot and thus store less than 80% than at cold. Leave the phone to cool before charging. Also heat lowers the internal resistance meaning the wallwart simply pours more juice through it.

The best case is to buy two batteries and swap them in use, charge them from a good external charger with charge sensor and they will each last a lot longer than one, charge faster and therefore consume less electricity to do so.

Whats really pitiful is that an Edison Battery (Nickel-Iron, early 1900s and comparable to NiCD in performance)would outlast hundreds of mobiles even if abused during that time. Most people actually replace their mobile before the battery is wrecked anyway.

Hope that helps.
I think people are missing the point here. This is what every "wall wart" should be doing. Thank goodness AT&T is implementing something that is common sense... maybe it will catch on!
The question I have is, how much energy does it take to make this device versus how much energy it will save those who use it during the life of the product. Or even what its carbon footprint of manufacture is versus the carbon footprint to make the energy is saves.
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Buying one of these things...
TranMan 18th Mar 2010
to save electricity, would be like buying a new Prius to save gasoline. If you're going to buy a car anyway, then sure, buy one that's efficient, but if you have an old car that's working fine, don't spend thousands on a new car to save hundreds on gas.

If AT&T wants to include these new chargers with the cell phones you get from them, that's a good thing--especially if, as the article seems to say, the charger is compatible with a variety of devices/connectors. On the other hand, if I have to go to Best Buy to get one, and it costs $30, I'll pass.
There are two principal types of mains charger - transformer and switch-mode. If charger is transformer type it gets warm even when not in use and thus wastes electricity. Switch-mode, on the other hand, does not get noticeably warm and thus wastes very little energy
0 Votes
+ -
If it's inexpensive, I'll buy three!
FiOS-Dave 18th Mar 2010
But does it shut off the AC when the plugged in device is fully charged? If so, I'd leave our cellphones connected whenevr we're at home!
Great idea but if the phone is not plugged in how does
this thing close the loop and use power ??? That would
be like saying that I need to unscrew all my lightbulbs
before I leave the house every day. Stop making
"Vampiric" devices. Period. Make a charger that
utilizes the USB cable to talk to the charger and let it
know when charging is done. Problem solved. Next
overdue idea please.

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