Measuring and modeling mobile phone charger energy consumption and environmental impact

Abstract

This paper studies the electricity consumption of mobile phone chargers. The charger's electricity consumption varies depending on its state. We measured the electricity consumption of various phone and charger models in different states. We also did panel studies on the recharging behavior of smartphone users. Based on these and other sources, we are able to estimate mobile phone recharging electricity consumption, cost, and CO2 emissions both in Europe and in the USA. Our analysis shows that the actual recharging of batteries consumes only 40% of the total energy; the rest is wasted mainly by unnecessarily plugged-in chargers consuming 55% of the total energy.