Saving electricity

[Trotbot]

Work has asked us to use battery power on our laptops when it is charged to save electricity as a green initiative.

Firstly, does this actually work or is the amount 'saved' when on battery equal to that required charge the battery (whilst being used to operate the laptop).

Secondly, does this reduce the battery life more quickly, thereby requiring the non-green battery to be replaced more frequently?

Finally, if there is a saving, how much is it for 200 users, and how would it compare to the savings gained by changing the air conditioning by one degree (feel free to make assumptions!).

[vehelpfulguy]

I am no expert in this area, but I would have thought the electricity savings were nil, after all you have to use electricity to recharge the battery afterwards, which will use more electricity than you saved.

I would have thought you will save FAR more energy worrying about the heating, cooling and lighting. All these use a lot of electricity.

I found a web site where this qustion about laptops was asked,

Q. My laptop computer runs for five hours on a charge. Does it take more electricity to recharge the battery when it's dead than it would have taken to run the computer off the power adapter for those five hours instead?

A. Yes, a little bit, because transferring energy from one source to another is always less than 100% efficient. But the difference is not significant. It's not worth measuring.

This site below may be useful (it is where I got the laptop question from)

http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/

[SteveSx1]

I agree with vehelpfulguy on this
Plus turning the heating down a couple of degrees in Winter too
Unless work is suggesting that they can save money by getting YOU to pay for charging up your laptops at home ?

[Toureman]

AS Steve says this is a scam to make you pay for the charging of your laptops, Charging the batteries and using them instead of mains electricity is more harm full to the environment as batteries are an inefficient way of storing electricity.

[Teddio]

My mains-connected laptop is fed with 4amps of current at 15 Volts which is 60 Watts. At 7pence per kilowatt-hour it will cost 0.42 pence per hour to run. Rechargeable batteries are an inefficient means of transferring energy. Their efficiency decreases with time and eventually they have to be disposed of.

[Space]

This is no "green initiative" at all, it is completely retarded.
1. it decreases battery life
2. it costs more energy overall (as explained by several people here)

[Trotbot]

Thanks for the answers, it confirmed my thoughts. Whether I can make anyone see sense is another matter!