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Airpower... does it draw power while plugged in with nothing on it?

Starfyre

Starfyre

macrumors 68030
Original poster
Nov 7, 2010
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Just read the Airpower article on MacRumors. What I want to know is for this (or any other wireless charging system), does it draw more power than if you just use the cable? For the 'future cases', which one is correct? If the Airpower mat draws power on it's own, how much of a difference does it make leaving it always plugged in? It seems silly to in order to conserve power, to put phone on mat and plug in airpower mat.

Today
I take cable, and plug in the cable on both ends, power is drawn.
Overall Power costs lowest because your only charging when you hook up your phone.

Future (Case A)
Airpower mat plugged in (always drawing power)
Put iPhone on mat... power that was already drawn for Airpower gets channeled to iPhone.
Power cost highest because Airpower is always drawing power.

Future (Case B)
Airpower mat plugged in (not drawing power)
Put iPhone on mat... power starts getting drawn and charges your phone.
Power cost lowest and identical to using a cable like today.
 
Starfyre said:
Just read the Airpower article on MacRumors. What I want to know is for this (or any other wireless charging system), does it draw more power than if you just use the cable? For the 'future cases', which one is correct? If the Airpower mat draws power on it's own, how much of a difference does it make leaving it always plugged in? It seems silly to in order to conserve power, to put phone on mat and plug in airpower mat.

Today
I take cable, and plug in the cable on both ends, power is drawn.
Overall Power costs lowest because your only charging when you hook up your phone.

Future (Case A)
Airpower mat plugged in (always drawing power)
Put iPhone on mat... power that was already drawn for Airpower gets channeled to iPhone.
Power cost highest because Airpower is always drawing power.

Future (Case B)
Airpower mat plugged in (not drawing power)
Put iPhone on mat... power starts getting drawn and charges your phone.
Power cost lowest and identical to using a cable like today.
Click to expand...
Do you unplug all the devices in your home that have to keep things in memory or store presets so they don’t draw voltage when not in use?
 
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“Don’t micro medivacs, and forget any other more important things”.
The power drawn from airmat (or AirPower), no matter the amount, won’t be any higher than, say, an air conditioner or a heater.
I would leave it plugged and forget about it.
 
it takes around 0.01 KWH pulled from the socket to charge iphone, so 1 hours of work buy's you around 15 thousand charges, if you spend too long calculating things beyond that it's gong to take you centuries to earn back in powersavings what worktime you lost doing the calculation :p
 
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You would likely have a better assessment with the Release of the Airpower for more literal testing. However, I don’t know if anyone that would likely venture to test these lengths.
 
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Shirasaki said:
“Don’t micro medivacs, and forget any other more important things”.
The power drawn from airmat (or AirPower), no matter the amount, won’t be any higher than, say, an air conditioner or a heater.
I would leave it plugged and forget about it.
Click to expand...

That would be an absurd amount of power to set and forget.
 
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Jimmy James said:
That would be an absurd amount of power to set and forget.
Click to expand...
You mean airmat consumes the same amount Of power as air conditioner? Well then, that is an absurd amount of power to set and forget.

Also, thanks for teaching me “set and forget”.
 
Starfyre said:
Just read the Airpower article on MacRumors. What I want to know is for this (or any other wireless charging system), does it draw more power than if you just use the cable? For the 'future cases', which one is correct? If the Airpower mat draws power on it's own, how much of a difference does it make leaving it always plugged in? It seems silly to in order to conserve power, to put phone on mat and plug in airpower mat.

Today
I take cable, and plug in the cable on both ends, power is drawn.
Overall Power costs lowest because your only charging when you hook up your phone.

Future (Case A)
Airpower mat plugged in (always drawing power)
Put iPhone on mat... power that was already drawn for Airpower gets channeled to iPhone.
Power cost highest because Airpower is always drawing power.

Future (Case B)
Airpower mat plugged in (not drawing power)
Put iPhone on mat... power starts getting drawn and charges your phone.
Power cost lowest and identical to using a cable like today.
Click to expand...
0.05 watt-hours (Wh) per day, 1.2 Wh per 30-day month, and 14.4 Wh per year.
 
Last edited:
To answer the OP's question, the answer that will be closest to reality will be future Case B. But that answer is not absolutely correct either.

The AirPower charger will probably draw some power with no phone on it. But a very small amount that is negligible. The power drawn by the charger will increase when the phone is on it.

The total amount of energy (charging power multiplied by the time it takes to charge) is what you will be billed for by your electric utility. This will be somewhat higher for the AirPower charger than for the traditional Lightning charging cable. This is because the inductive connection to the phone for AirPower charging is less efficient than normal cable charging. So there will be some power (and energy) loss. Again, this is negligible by most people's standards.

So if the absolute minimum amount of energy use is your personal holy grail, keep charging with the cable. But I would urge you to rethink your priorities and not worry about a few cents per year.
 
Shirasaki said:
You mean airmat consumes the same amount Of power as air conditioner? Well then, that is an absurd amount of power to set and forget.

Also, thanks for teaching me “set and forget”.
Click to expand...
The original "Set it and forget it"
 
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