Please help me figure out the electrical draw.

[GH85Carrera]

I have this little gizmo inline with the phone charger. It is an inductive charger, and most of the time it is sitting there doing nothing.

I had the meter in place for just over a month, 33 days according to the top right readout.

Am I reading that display right that the total mAH was 077552?

Obviously I don't really about about the total draw as it is negligible compared to the overall household use. I am just curious. It is mostly a neat little gizmo to let me know how much draw a USB-C device is pulling.

The inductive charge is plugged into a power strip from the wall that also powers my router and modem, so it is always on. It has a USB output to charge devices, so I use that to charge my phone. I have inductive chargers-phone holders in both of my antique cars.

[masraum]

Looks like 77552 mAh to me. I assume that’s the total for 33 days? How often do you have something plugged into it, and what do you have hanging off of the charger?

[GH85Carrera]

My cell phone is all l that hangs on it.
It has been attached the the charger all that time.

[Rob Channell]

Something doesn't quite add up to me. I want to interpret the yellow W as instantaneous power in watts and the large blue voltage and red current as instantaneous measurements as well. (What is happening right now). With that voltage and current the watts should be non-zero ~0.047W or so.

But, just so we can play with some numbers.....
I will assume for now that 77552 mAh is the amount of current pulled along with time, basically average milliAmps*hours.

Divide by the number of hours to get the average number of milliAmps over that time period.
Divide again by 1000 if you want to turn it into average Amps used over that time.
This average includes time it is charging and time it is not so could vary wildly from the peak power. (Lake with an average depth of 6 inches...)

If you want to turn it into power used over that time you multiply by the voltage to get milliwatt-hours.

Assume 33 days and 5 hours, ignoring the 23 minutes for now.
Total number hours = 33*24+5= 797 hours.

milliamps = (77552 mAh / 797 h) = 97.3 mA
or 0.0973 Amps

For average energy used over that time we could just multiply the milliAmp hours * the average voltage. If I assume the average voltage was somewhere between the current voltage (5.24V5) and max voltage (5.47V)...say 5.3V, then the average power in milliwatts is
77552 mAH * 5.3V = 411025.6 mWH (milliwatt-hours) = 411 watt-hours = 0.411 killiwatt hours
Probably around a nickel's worth of electricity at rates around here.

The other thing I thought of that the mAH could possibly be is sort of an amount of charge charged to a battery. If it zeroes when you put the phone on and then starts counting up, that might be it. If it keeps incrementing from where it is then it is more the average I was thinking above.

Based on the peak power numbers and the fact it is supposed to be a 5V charger my guess is it is probably using between 5-7 watts most of the time it is charging and based on the average numbers it is averaging around 0.5 watts for cumulative charge and non-charge time together.

Hopefully I did not embarrass myself with a huge mistake being tired at the end of a long day.
Is that kinda what you were after? Old guys with old cars gotta stick together.

Cool gadget anyway.

[GH85Carrera]

It does not zero out, it seems to just accumulate. It was a gift from a geek friend, and had zero instructions. I figured it was minimal cost to charge a phone.

I am going to put it on the inductive charger in my El Camino for a while now, just to see what it does then.

[jyl]

So about 0.1 amps average. Seems reasonable.

[911_Dude]

Interesting little device. I dont think I have a use for it, but I like techy stuff like that. Its on the Chinese Amazon that starts w a T for less than $6, called a "POROMETISTO KWS-2302C Type-C Power Meter - Dual-Direction Current & Voltage Tester for Cell Phone Charging".

[john70t]

Looks like the USB version of https://shop.p3international.com/products/kill-a-watt-flex

I bought a older version but didn't really use it that much. My bills are usually reasonable. And I couldn't figger it out.

[juanbenae]

My pops an electrical engineer told me something to really simplify it for me. Volts are like static pressure in a waterline, whereas Amps are how that waterline would deliver volume when opened.

Pops n I headed back down 108 in the jeep after some time on the rocks. Bax too. Good times.

[red 928]

Probably vampire, or "not in use" energy draw.

Vampire loads (standby power) waste approximately $100 to $440 per year for the average U.S. household, accounting for 5%–25% of annual residential energy usage. Nationally, these idle, plugged-in devices drain over $19 billion to $26 billion annually.

Most battery chargers use a small amount of electricity even when plugged in but not in use.
Same goes for other induction type inverters or whatever the heck they are called.
If a device is plugged into the 120v wall socket and has a black box inline that reduces the voltage or changes it to DC, it's eating up $ even when not in use.
Having your TV plugged in, a cable box, a VCR, and a DVD player (I know, old guy) can use enough power to run a light bulb 24 hrs/day (not an LED light, a real one )

Think of all the things you have plugged in right now that don't need to be.
Things like a CPAP machine, a battery charger for your drill motor, etc.
All costing you money.

It's smart to have things like that on a switch that can be turned off when you turn off the device, but then you have to get the neighbors kid to reprogram the VCR clock every time.
Get off my lawn

Some modern chargers are being designed with "sleep mode" to shut themselves down and reduce the parasitic losses but less expensive chargers do not.

[GH85Carrera]

We have a pump for the Koi pond running 24/7 and right now even a pond heater in the there to keep the pond from freezing over. My wife bought up a heated bird bath that has a thermostat to keep the water from freezing and the birds and squirrels love it.

She also has a 75 gallon tropical fresh water tank with a light, one large pump for the gravel filter, and an pump to add air that runs 24/7. In the summer months she has a fountain in the main front garden with a pump running 24/7. So lots of constant electricity draw.

The tiny amount of draw on the inductive charger is not worth worrying about, but it is just a cool toy to see the draw.

I also have a 220 heat in the garage I run when I am out there working in the winter, and a AC unit for the summer. I have a Kilowatt gizmo that I measured my garage AC consumption. It is about the cost of a 6 pack of beer to stay at 72 degrees with the AC lights and ceiling fans running. I have a small fridge out in the garage to keep my beer cold.

All of my battery charges for the tools are on a power strip and they get turned off at the power strip when not in use.

[john70t]

slight tangent..

Had some strange things happening with house electrical:
Some lights would work and then not work. LED bulbs. Some are ballast-bypass. I thought it was just the switches or bulbs. Occasional artifacts on the gaming computer screen must be the old GPU. The kitchen lights started occasionally dimming or flashing briefly with the microwave. Then an event happened with the microwave + hot water pot running at the same time, where both seemed to be running on half power. Not happy electronics. Yikes.

They were all on separate circuits so it had to be the fuse box, right?
I guessed it was a situation of the breaker screws loosening or the ground.
Some pipes had started getting green...which serve as house grounds I believe.

Called an electrician. He checked the breakers. Also checked voltage at the meter box.
With the microwave running he was getting 107V from PhaseA and 143V from PhaseB side. Whatever that means.
-Told me there should should only be 10% max difference.
-Told me it was a utility neutral open problem from the pole.

I called the utilities and said lights flashing and furnace might not be working right.
Also, I hoped nothing expensive breaks in the meantime..yeah..
They actually showed up within a few hours. TY utilities!
First guy used a small handheld load tester I think on the meter for a few minutes. Said everything was normal to him. Yawn. It's cold. Gave me a look.
Second guy went up the pole and found an open connection.

All fixed now. Microwave hums nice. Lights work. Pipes are still green.