After I got a stationary power meter I do often include standby/idle power in my charger tests, but it is usual with the charger connected, but idle.
That’s some router :money_mouth_face:
Every charger model is different so you have to check yours. There has been government pressure and some regulation to cut phantom power usage because as it rises it increases societal electricity consumption for little benefit, but there is still a long way to go, some items like cable boxes typically use a great deal of power when idle.
This type of devices can usual not measure low power consumption, but sometimes it is possible to modify the device.
I noticed that, 1W is the lowest it can register
Nope, my Kill-a-watt P3 P4400 does tenths watts. Check out the vampire draw from the XStar SP1:
Although I think you are right that the older ones didn’t do tenths.
PS - if you unplug the XStar at the dock, it’s wall wart draws nothing.
laptop and phone chargers are always plugged in,
I rarely use ni-mh and lithium chargers, so they are unplugged after use.
Even if it shows something, do not expect very good precision, you are on the least significant digit!
Ha, I wonder it it’s not my internet provider’s modem using my free power to power their network!
HKJ, another load reads 2.3 to 2.4, and wonders between those digits freely, so I have high hopes it’s accurate. But you’re right, we can’t be sure.
It does not say much, many meters has a tolerance of +/- a few counts on the last digit. That means 0.1 can mean 0.01 or 0.3. When you are up to two digits it is not really that significant any more.
Cool, thanks, mine does 1W only but if i buy another in the future its will probably be a newer model that does
Yes. I have 4 Eneloop wall chargers that always stay plugged in. (8aa and 8aaa are in them on stand-by).
And my Olight Omni-Dok charger and Tenergy 4 x C/D chargers are always plugged in.
I unplug my charger when not in use
Joshk, thanks for the pic of the SP1 with the kill-a-watt!
Well we all know errors have the greatest impact on tiny measurements like the vampire current I was measuring. But it’s an incredible device for $17. Let me say that again, $17. Here is how it compares to a fully calibrated $500 Fluke 87v with True RMS.
Fluke 87V True RMS Multimeter with AcuCal calibration
123.0 V
0.016 A
60.01 Hz
Kill-A-Watt P3 P4400
123.4 V
0.01 A
60.0 Hz
0.28 PF
2.1 VA
That goes beyond the accuracy I would expect for $17 and makes this an incredible device. ToyKeeper can back this up I bet, but it’s very likely the Amps are truncated for display instead of rounded so they could be much more accurate than this test reveals.
I won’t be tempting fate for more tests.
perhaps HKJ would be interested in testing this?
No, it is a device for measuring US mains, it would not get a fair test on EU mains.
That sucks 
I’m guessing they don’t make an EU version?