What happens to the power in an unused but plugged in dc converter? and how much power does it consume?

Question

i.e. i have a laptop charger that's plugged into the wall, but not connected to the laptop. i believe that it still consumes as much power as when there's something plugged in, but what happens to that power? it just goes off as heat?

Answer 1

No, the converter does not consume the same amount of power as when connected to a load, but it does indeed use some amount of power to keep the capacitors charged, the magnetic fields active and the ICs biased.   You are correct.  The power is dissipated as heat.