Monday, August 31, 2009

Green Charging your iPhone

Did you know that the average mobile phone consumes 2.8 KW of electricity per year? Since iPhones and Blackberry's are running so many applications and functions, they are charged more often than the regular old cell phone, typically every 24 to 48 hours. I'm sure the Palm Pre and mobile platforms with the Android OS will be very similar. Unless you live in a city with abundant hydropower, electricity will be one of the main contributing causes of greenhouse gas emissions... and it is expensive!

Do you ever plug in your iPhone, or any battery powered device for that matter, and let it charge all night so it has a full charge when you leave for work in the morning? Doing this is basically overcharging the battery and wasting electricity. At least the new iPhone 3GS has the built in display showing battery percentage, which is much improved over the application designed to do that for the 3G, which doesn't show it.


Impetus Technologies has designed a new iPhone app that might just save you some money on your electricity bill and help the environment along the way. Green Charging alerts the user (with sound effects and vibration) when the iPhone's battery is fully charged. As a bonus, the application also shows battery status, stand-by time and talk-time, in percent. The 99 cents it costs to buy this app will definitely pay for itself many times over the life of the phone.

This might sound too basic but another tip is to turn your mobile device off occasionally. I have a friend who had his phone for over a month and kept it on the whole time. He charged it at night while the phone was still on. When the iPhone's battery finally died one day, he couldn't remember how to turn it back on after he had it on the charger.

6 comments:

  1. I was about to ask if you could recommend any good 'nightlight' apps, but never mind...

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  2. Maddy in Brooklyn, NYSeptember 2, 2009 at 5:51 AM

    Found your blog this morning through a link from the CardStar app site. Great read. Will be back to check regularly. Off to download Green Charging . . .

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  3. Sorry Roger, no night-night apps that I've ever heard of.

    Maddy - funny I've had a few emails from people that have really liked the CardStar iPhone app. I think as more people us it and more stores/businesses are on the list, it will become an ever better application.

    I liked this application for the iPhone as it helps to mitigate wasting electricity. As well as saving the user some money, it will probably help the iPhone's battery life too!

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  4. Maddy in Brooklyn, NYSeptember 2, 2009 at 6:55 PM

    Came to see what you might have posted since I wrote this morning . . . I have not gone for CardStar yet . . . I use an Otter Box for my phone and wonder how the case would affect the "read" off the screen . . . Off to find more apps. I love to search for things that I can actually use :)

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  5. Lisa... girl with the miniSeptember 8, 2009 at 1:11 PM

    Now that is a wonderful idea for an iPhone application. I hate the idea of charing my iPhone all night, which I'm conviced will kill my battery even more quickly!

    Lisa

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