[Shop-talk] Trickle Chargers - operating Costs

[Doug Braun]

I just checked my Schumacher Battery Companion (which
has been connected to a 6-bolt battery for several
days) to a watt-meter, and it measured ZERO watts.  

It's probably safe to say it uses one watt or less. 
That's totally trivial from a cost perspective. 
Probably similar to what a timer would use by itself.

If a charger kept using 20 watts for days at a time,
then the battery it is trying to charge is clearly
messed up.

My candidate for the most pointless waste of
electricity is my Verizon Fios Cable-TV box.  It uses
a constant 30 watts whether it is turned on or off.

Doug


> Then I did some math.  Damn -- even if it averages a
> mere 20W 
> continuous, that's 175 KWHr/year or 14.6/month; 
> which would run me 
> $14.00/yr $1.17/mo.  Hmm, apparently the little crap
> is worthy of more 
> attention than I thought.
> 
>    -Wayne