Recently I used an electrical meter to measure how much electricity various devices use. The big surprise for me was a laptop charger that pulls current even when the battery is fully charged. Since normal behaviour is to plug in something to charge, then return when you need it next or when you remember, there might be a day or more when something like this is plugged in and pulling small but unnecessary watts of power. I've tried to lessen this by using a digital electrical timer that includes a countdown function. I know roughly how many hours it takes to charge the battery, and I set the countdown for a little bit longer than this. If I don't get a chance to unplug the charger the moment the device is charged, it's ok - the timer shuts off the power for me.
Since one of my resolutions is to switch all of my battery-operated appliances over to rechargeables as their alkaline batteries wear out, I bought my first batch of eneloop batteries today. Aside from the positive reviews these batteries are getting, my main reason for starting a collection was because I would love to take advantage of the solar charger that has been released in Japan. Solar powering instead of mains power, and much less battery waste, makes for much more environmentally-friendly small appliance usage.
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