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Onboard Electronics

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So now the main regulatory agencies in the US, Canada, and Europe permit the use of electronics during takeoff and landing. This is referred to as “gate-to-gate” device use. So you may be able to use your device during your entire flight.

If you’ve ever been asked by a strict Lufthansa stewardess to pack away your iPad or laptop during a flight, you’ll be pleased to hear that those terrible days are in the past.

Airline Specific Regulations

However each airline is permitted to set its own internal rules. The US Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) don’t  set rules that can apply to all air carriers. They permit each airline to choose to embrace this revision. Airlines want to keep their passengers satisfied, so they’re generally allowing gate-to-gate device use. Not all carriers have accepted the change so some carriers won’t allow this useage on-board.

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Portable Devices and Larger Devices

There are various rules for your small portable devices as well as larger computers. Essentially, any device the size of an iPad or smaller fits this bill.

These smaller devices can be used during takeoff and landing as long as you hold them.

Laptops aren’t included in this update. These need to be  stowed during take-off and landing. You can still use the laptop during the flight.

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Airplane Mode

Any devices do need to be in airplane mode.

The FCC is considering permitting cellular connectivity above 10,000 feet.

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Vampire Power Sucks You Dry

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Energy Savings With Turning Off Electrical Appliances

Really – how much (or little) power does the smartphone, laptop, or tablet really use? Do you need to unplug them when not actually using them to save cash on power? So we measured precisely the levels of power a number of the most common chargers utilize, and how expensive keeping them plugged in really can be.

You may have heard of a mysterious force known as vampire power.  This is actually how much power a device uses while in standby; when you aren’t using it. So how much vampire power does a charger really suck, and is it really worth the effort of unplugging them whenever you aren’t using the devices?

 

How We Measured Useage

To measure the power usage of a variety of popular chargers, we used the ‘Kill A Watt’ electricity usage meter.

Trialing a wide number of chargers; from iPhone, iPad  and MacBook, to many more, it was quite obvious to all that there was an issue with the very concept of the test. We were amazed to see – not one a single device tested used a detectable amount of vampire power while plugged into an electricity outlet.

Put simply, the Kill A Watt’s display read 0.0 watts, regardless of what was plugged into it.

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That can’t be realistic!

It’s not totally correct to say that every charger was using 0.0 watts. Each charger is drawing some tiny percentage of a fraction of a watt. So at some time it should be detectable!

So we had a new idea — use a power strip with the meter and plug in a number of devices into the power strip.

Finally — after six separate chargers were plugged in, filling all the power strip’s electrical outlets — we detected a reading.

The total vampire power draw of this completely full power bar, an iPhone 6, an iPad Air, a Surface Pro 2, a MacBook Air, a Samsung Chromebook, and a Nexus 7 read 0.31 watts.

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I See, so what does that mean financially?

So the number we have to work with is 0.3 watts.

We’ll assume these are all plugged constantly. So there are 8760 hours in a year. That equals 2.628 kilowatt hours (kWh).

According to the numbers at the US EIA, the average base cost of electricity in the USA is 12.98 cents per kWh. This means that those 2.628 kWh of electricity will cost a whopping 34.1 cents for a year.

The real cost is actually lower,as the devices are not plugged in constantly.

Vampire Power is fiction

This demonstrates that the amount of vampire power consumed by your chargers is irrelevant. It isn’t worth concerning yourself with. Just leave your chargers plugged in for ease; don’t bother to unplug them.

 

Cholos & Vegan Food

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So I’m sure everyone has been asking, what do Cholos think of vegan food? Thankfully, it’s now been answered with an awesome video.

What did they say? Their response was way less negative than you would imagine, especially with how popular it is to give all things vegan a hard time.

The response when given a bag of  kale chips is that they have been given a bag of cannabis. Cautious sniffs are carried out and even questioning how they could best smoke the kale.

The kambucha is similarly viewed with caution, with one Cholo stating it looks just like a bottle of chloroform.

Filed Under: Fun