Wonder if when I leave it connected to the outlet but not connected to the laptop, it still consumes electricity. The answer for this is: YES, it will consume power, but such a few power that you may consider it irrelevant in terms of power consumption. As you can see on the picture above(a schematic of a AC notebook Adapter), the "entrance" of the circuit(L and N 90 - 265 VAC) have an AC transformer: This component is responsible for converting the entrance AC voltage into another one in AC(if there is a load on the "output" side of this component. As you can see on the picture above: Wikipedia have a good explanation about the operation of a trasformer: A transformer is a device that transfers electrical energy from one circuit to another through inductively coupled conductors—theA varying current in the first or primary winding creates a varying magnetic flux in the transformer's core and thus a varying magnetic field through the secondary winding.

magnetic field induces a varying electromotive force (EMF), or "voltage", in the secondary winding. This effect is called inductive If a load is connected to the secondary, current will flow in the secondary winding, and electrical energy will be transferred from the primary circuit through the transformer to the load. transformer, the induced voltage in the secondary winding (Vs) is in proportion to the primary voltage (Vp) and is given by the ratio of the number of turns in the secondary (Ns) to the number of turns in the primary (Np) as follows: I marked on bold the main part of explanation to explain you what will happend if there is no load on the trasformer(in this case, it means that there is no device "consuming" power from the transformer). If there is no load, the secondary part of the trasnformer will not "act" on the primary part of it. It means that you will only have the input loaded with the entrance impedance of the transformer, or, in this specific case, the AC power from your electric outlet to an inductor of 200uH in the transformer.

A theoretical "ideal" inductor will not dissipate any power, but a real inductor will also have a resistive component that dissipates a small amount of power, usually due to the magnetic material in the core of the transformer producing "core losses"8. Jual Ac Portable PalembangThis will explain why you have a consumption of the AC adapter even if there is no "load" or on this case, if the notebook is turned off.Homes For Sale In Bakersfield Ca With Guest House PS: This situation applies not only for your notebook AC adapter but to all adapters that have a transformer on it's entreance.Thomas The Tank Engine Curtains 90 Drop Hope being helpful with my explanations.Hold the charger in your hand while it's plugged in.

Does it feel warm? That heat is generated from the electricity passing through the charger, even though it's not plugged into a laptop. Vampire hunters: Devices reduce energy waste Energy tip #10: remove wall warts and slay electricity vampires Do chargers use electricity when they aren't being used? In general, yes it does. Unless there's a sensor that detects the connection to the laptop and cuts the circuit to the transformer, there's still electrons moving around. Not all chargers use a measurable amount of power when the laptop is plugged in but off. My laptop charger uses 0 watts as measured by a watt-meter. Yours might be different. Now it might not be an actual 0.000000000000 but it is apparently less than 0.1 watt which is the minimum my meter will read. Under load with my laptop running it's 25 watts.There are still components in the laptop charger that uses a "little" energy when it is plugged in. About a year ago, there were numerous commercials on TV stating to unplug your cell phone charger when not in use due to the same reason.

Browse other questions tagged power-supply .We're sorry, we encountered an error while processing your request. Cloud Computing & Virtualization Graphics & Web Design Home & Office Computing Mobile Application Development & Programming NetworkingOpen SourceOperating Systems, ServerProcess ImprovementProgrammingSecurity Software Development & Management Web DevelopmentWeb ServicesStoreBookseBooksPractice TestsSoftwareVideoWeb EditionsAuthorsSafariImprintsAddison-Wesley ProfessionalCisco PressIBM PressPearson IT CertificationPrentice Hall ProfessionalQue PublishingSams PublishingVMware PressExploreAboutAffiliatesArticlesBlogsCommunityDeals and PromotionsNewslettersPressUser GroupsA common weak spot on most laptops is the DC power jack. If someone trips on the wire while you have the power adaptor plugged into your laptop, chances are that the power jack will get damaged. On most laptops the DC power jack is soldered directly to the motherboard and there are only three or four small pins holding it in place.

Unfortunately that makes the power jack quite weak. Any sideways pulling of the DC power cord while attached to the laptop will usually dislodge at least one of these pins, breaking the solder around it. Modern laptops use quite a lot of power, from about 70W to 120W or even more. The bad electrical connection from the dislodged pin will cause sparks and heating that will eventually burn a hole through the motherboard and can even be a fire hazard. The usual signs of that are: All of these symptoms are caused by poor contact between the DC power jack and the motherboard. There are several models of laptops that are resistant to this problem. All older Dell laptops that use the three pin DC power jack are usually not affected, probably because the power cord pops out easier. Also some older Sony Vaio models, and 1-2 Toshiba models where the DC jack is attached to the case away from the motherboard and all new Apple laptops, where the DC power cord is magnetically attached to prevent any damage to the laptop if someone trips on it.

To test for broken power jack: If your laptop shuts down abruptly (looses power), find a repair shop that can resolder or change the DC power jack as soon as possible, as the motherboard has already started to burn around the dislodged pins. Some repair shops will offer to replace the whole motherboard, however the price of a new motherboard together with the labour charge for installing it will usually be greater than the current value of your laptop and can go well over a thousand dollars. Replacing or re-soldering the DC power jack is not an easy job too. It usually takes two to three hours depending on the damage and the model of the laptop. To reach the power jack, the laptop has to be completely disassembled and the motherboard taken out. Then if the board around the dislodged pin is badly burned, the power jack has to be un-soldered and the board has to be patched. After that a different power jack has to be installed, attached to the case of the laptop and connected with wires to the motherboard, as the patched board wouldn’t be strong enough to support the original type of power jack that was soldered directly to the board.