Cell Phone Chargers To Be More Efficient

On Wednesday, the world’s top five cell phone makers launched a common energy rating system for chargers, making it easier for customers to compare and choose from the ones consuming the least energy.

This new system is in response to the heavy criticism from environmentalist that has been poured out to the cell phone industry.  The industry has become the world’s top consumer electronics business by volume.

The companies involved in making this system are Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and LG Electronics.  They agreed on a system that has five stars for the most efficient chargers, down to zero stars for the least efficient. 

Cell phone chargers still consume electricity even when it is left in the socket with the phone disconnected.  Around two-thirds of the electricity used by mobile phones is wasted this way, according to Nokia.

"If the more than three billion people owning mobile devices today switched to a four or five-star charger, this could save the same amount of energy each year as produced by two medium sized power plants," Nokia said in a statement.

The top four charger makers include Flextronics, China’s BYD Co., Emerson Group and Finnish Salcomp.

"This should be positive for us," Salcomp Chief Executive Markku Hangasjarvi told Reuters. "Such chargers are more difficult to produce, their average selling price is higher and they demand special know-how."