Energy...

As we've written here before, cellphone chargers are not the most efficient devices in the world. Even when they are done charging your phone, they continue to suck energy out of the wall. That energy does no one any good, and it's power (and money) that goes to waste.

Cell phone manufacturers are finally ready to recognize this problem. Last week, the top five handset makers -- Nokia, Samsung, Sony Ericsson, Motorola and LG Electronics -- rolled out a new five-star ranking system for their chargers which will identify the most energy efficient models.

In a statement, Nokia said "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."

This is great news, and well overdue, but one part of this story worries me. Here's a statement that Markku Hangasjarvi, CEO of charger-maker Salcomp, gave to Reuters: "This should be positive for us. Such chargers are more difficult to produce, their average selling price is higher and they demand special know-how."

Really? The better-rated chargers are going to be marked up? Hopefully this isn't just another way to rip off the consumer while appearing greener.

Well, until these newly ranked chargers hit the market, let's assume this is a good idea and applaud it. But until then, keep an eye on your phones while they're charging, and unplug them when they're done.

Here are links to the five companies' sites and the data on their chargers:

• http://www.lge.com/about/sustainability/climate_energystar.jsp#battery
• http://www.motorola.com/environment/chargers
• http://www.nokia.com/chargerenergy
• http://uk.samsungmobile.com/greenmanagement/energy.do
• http://www.sonyericsson.com/cws/corporate/company/sustainability/energy