Study on energy consumption of adapters and battery chargers

Under the authority of the Dutch Energy Agency 'Novem' industrial design and engineering office NewProducts has performed an inventory study on the energy consumption of adapters and battery chargers. Besides the energy aspects, various aspects of the adapters and chargers have been discussed: The products are classified in categories based on type of the appliance and function of the adapter; The proportions of the Dutch market of adapters and chargers and the players on this market are discussed in brief; The relevant technical background, especially with respect to the energy consumption is discussed. In general there are two types of adapters, linear and switch mode; Product specifications collected from several manufacturers are presented; To fill up the lack of data some measurements have been made of which the results are presented. Together with the product specifications this gives an overview of the performances of adapters and chargers; During the study several ideas and new developments have been found for reducing energy consumption. A remarkable conclusion is that there is no or not much attention from manufacturers or consumers for energy consumption of adapters or no-load power consumption, although there are some initiatives for reduction, e.g. the Code of Conduct on Efficiency of External Power Supplies of the European Union. Lots of linear adapters are still sold and in use, although the efficiency of the switch mode adapters is a lot better. The problem is the higher price. The switch mode adapters are being sold together with sophisticated electronic appliances. Most of the other initiatives and solutions to reduce the no-load energy consumption and improve the efficiency are also technical