Worth Reading?
+3 [5 votes]
Out of both a sense of environmental concern and - perhaps more immediately-pressing - the fear of my electricity bill, I try to switch off power adaptors and gadgets at the plug when I’m not using them. Sometimes, however, I just plain forget, only to sob like a child when the statement comes through. So I’d be happy to give desk space to these smart energy-saving plugs, should they every go from being concepts to full blown commercial releases.
Recognising when a gadget goes in sleep or low-power mode by the reduced current draw, the individual switch gently alerts you with a cool, pulsing OLED light. If you don’t override it (say, if you’re charging up your laptop) then it automatically shuts the power off after three minutes.
I’d be interested to hear if it can tell the difference, say, between a wall-wart plugged in with your cellphone attached and just left plugged in, since I’m told they have pretty consistent power draw no matter what. Aiming for high-design is certainly a clever way to encourage you to leave it visible and on the edge of your attention (as opposed to traditional multi-plug adapters which end up buried under the desk).
Yanko Design [via electro^plankton]
Reminds me of the Smart Strip from Bits. It detects when something is turned off on the sensor outlet then shuts down the other controlled outlets in response. This way you can turn off your computer and it will cut power to your speakers, printers, monitor, etc. that you have plugged into the controlled outlets.
See http://catalog.bitsltd.us/power_strips/