When you plug in your phone to charge, the battery sucks energy from the wall jack until it’s full. But that’s not the whole story, because most wall chargers actually continue drawing energy even if there’s no phone plugged in at all. Now Freescale is introducing technology to eliminate this so-called “vampire” power problem.
Basically, the Freescale “Watt Saver” system detects when your battery is full or when your phone is unplugged, and automatically stops the power adapter from eating electricity, thus making the planet and your electric bill a tiny bit happier.
CNET reports that AT&T’s Zero Charger system is based on Freescale tech and has been available since last year, but now Freescale plans to work with other electronics makers to incorporate the Watt Saver system into their products.
Right now it looks like the system s just for smartphones, but hopefully we’ll see similar developments for laptops, tablets, and other battery powered devices in the future.
Does this one restart charging so the phone remains topped off overnight? This was a big issue with another “green” charger, as phones would stop charging in the middle of the night and would be at less than full charge by morning.
About time!