I am getting very frustrated with all the attention to wireless charging systems that has been popping up lately. I think the technology is cool. And “space age” (though actually almost as old as our understanding of electricity). What no one focuses on, though, is that it is horribly INEFFICIENT. My understanding is that companies are striving for 50% efficient power transfer in the next few years. This means that if you are charging your cell phone, which already depends on crappy batteries, (ALL batteries are crappy, so don’t respond with something about lithium this or that) you are not only losing the power lost from the batteries, but also the power lost from transferring that power TO the batteries.

When I was working on a power wheelchair design for severely disabled people, I could see the absolute reason for why this technology can and should be used. In a case where something MUST be charged and the user has limited abilities, a 50% power loss is relatively unimportant. My old Interplak toothbrush from the early 90s used a wireless charging system because it couldn’t handle getting its contacts wet. Not AS important, but still understandable. But a phone charger? We need a standard style charger (which, I understand, is in the works) and they need to NOT come with our electronics. Buy it separately. That way, when you upgrade your phone, you can use your old charger. This will reduce our waste in production of needless chargers and make a wired charger EVER MORE efficient versus a wireless charger.