Watt a muddle

YOUR leader, “Win some, lose some in cost-cutting game” (22 November) quotes “a new survey” claiming that workers could be saving themselves £110 a year by charging up phones and other gadgets at employers’ expense. Shock horror news, as one might say.

The really shocking thing is that this “survey” has been widely quoted and apparently accepted without question. A mobile phone charger uses about 5 watts when it’s charging, so it takes 200 hours to use one kWh of power – costing less than 20p. That’s 1,000 hours per £1, or 110,000 hours (about 12.5 years) for £110. How many mobile phones are these employees charging up?

Ryanair did, indeed, ban employees from charging mobile phones at work – but this was six years ago (your report ‘Ryanair refuses to pick up the charge’, 23 April, 2005). It was actually because the company regarded it as “an inappropriate use of working time”.

John Brand

Braid Mount Crest

Edinburgh

IT IS little wonder that business is worried about employees charging their mobiles at work. Perhaps, though, they should worry more about the time as the alleged £112 cost amounts to more than 100,000 recharges (based on the battery capacity of the nearest smartphone to hand). Could there be confusion between Watts and kiloWatts somewhere?

ERIC McFARLANE

Athol Terrace

Bathgate