USB wall sockets

[boater sam]

A thought about those USB sockets on 13a socket plates, are they powered up all the time?
If so, not very green are they?

[ppppenguin]

I have one but haven't installed it yet. I measured the idle current and I think, from memory, it equated to about 500mW. That's assuming it was all real power rather than VARs. Not sure what the EU directives currently specify for equipment in standby but it's certainly no more than 1W.

1W for a year is about 8kWh or about £1 So my measured 0.5W is about 50p/year. If 20 million households have a socket like this the total consumption is 10MW which sounds a lot but is a drop in the ocean of the many GW that's drawn from the grid.

[beamcurrent]

I've thought about this, watching various threads, and whilst the consumption is low I suspect the on all the time switch mode will go Bang in a few years time..........

Brian

[Mark Hennessy]

Not sure what the EU directives currently specify for equipment in standby but it's certainly no more than 1W.

I had to double-check this recently.

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Standby_power

On 6 January 2010 the European Commission (EC) Regulation No 1275/2008 came into force. The regulations mandate that from 6 January 2010 "off mode" and standby power for electrical and electronic household and office equipment shall not exceed 1W, "standby plus" power (providing information or status display in addition to possible reactivation function) shall not exceed 2W. Equipment must where appropriate provide off mode and/or standby mode when the equipment is connected to the mains power source. These figures were halved on 6 January 2013.

So presently, it's half a watt.

Another good article: https://www.dssw.co.uk/blog/2010-02-13-e...equipment/

For these, I'd be more concerned about safety. They will eventually fail, and hopefully safely, but a surge might be interesting, given that they are built down to a price. In a masonry wall, the risk of a fire spreading from one of these seems unlikely, but a lot of sockets are installed in timber-framed houses... Let's hope the plastics are genuinely self-extinguishing.

At least when a standard charger fails after 1 to 3 years, it's a simple matter to chuck it away and use a new one - no tools required, etc.

There's also the question of RFI...

All in all, they seem like a Bad Idea to me.

[boater sam]

 I bought the cheapest one I could find, it takes many many different mains plugs from around the world, and has 2 usb outlets. They were £2.61 delivered, unbelievable. I intend to run it on the workbench where it will be constantly watched though the power is off when I'm not working.
We will see how it survives as our voltage is always over 250v with lots of hash and switching surges.
I still think that half a watt constantly is a waste but there is no way that plug insertion could be made to switch it on. Probably its a bad idea to switch on when connected?

[Mike Watterson]

How much RF interference is generated?
Is there an "Off"? I'd design them like some shaver sockets where the shutter operates a switch on the mains supply in.


Any I looked at had no off switch, seemed too small for reliability or decent filters and far more expensive than regular sockets. Unless every outlet has the USB, it's inflexible and a standalone replaceable portable charger is thus better?

[Refugee]

When I looked into this issue the answer was to have a small transformer or metal boxed SMPSU operated by a little micro-switch in an enclosure that can handle the result of a Li-iron battery going off.
You would just plug the item in and place it on the micro-switch to charge. I never built one but I do most certainly charge some items in a metal container all the time.
I consider 500ma to be the maximum I would trust when charging things like E-cigs as these rarely have anything but a far east CE mark on them,
The USB outlets in those power socket face plates have a much higher current limit usually in the region of 2 amps. This is far too high for anything with a Li-iron battery that has a far east CE mark. Just don't risk it.
I don't buy those power sockets and charge things from a spare port on my computer as this will shut the computer down alerting of any trouble well before any pops or bangs that may result if there is no monitoring.

[ed731pdh]

Got kids? Kids have gadgets. Devices are always on charge. So for me it was a no brainer.

[Refugee]

It is difficult when there is a big demand.
The safest way is to "rest" batteries after charging. You never know if the demand will be enough to justify an extra battery until too late.

[Nick]

There are various "tear down" articles and videos about these on the www... The conclusions are that mostly they are rubbish and in some cases, plain dangerous. I wouldn't touch them with a bargepole or have them in the house.

However, it's also worth noticing that there are several USB standards and the specifications are evolving. The most recent, 3.1, uses USB C connectors which have no polarity and which can charge at way higher rates than USB 3.0 - up to 100W..

We use Anker multiple-output chargers... e.g.  USB Type-C, Anker Premium 5-Port 60W USB Wall Charger PowerPort+ 5 USB-C with Power Delivery for Apple MacBook, Nexus 5X / 6P and PowerIQ for iPhone, iPad, Samsung & More

They support correct USB 3.1 and charge multiple devices with different specifications simultaneously... You just buy the output leads you need - they're pretty cheap...

NB. Anker is a quality USA make...