Green Plug Hopes to Take a Bite Out of Vampire Power
by Matthew McDermott, Brooklyn, NY on 08.12.08
Concept images: GreenPlug
You’ve probably heard it so many times now that you’re sick of it: “Unplug any electronic device with a ‘wall wart’ when you’re not using it. Power down your computer at night instead of just putting it to sleep. Don’t leave battery charges, cell phone chargers and the like plugged in if you’re not actually charging something. Et cetera. Et cetera.” You are doing those things, right?
That said, Green Plug has another way which, provided the electronics industry is keen on adopting it, could take reducing vampire power to a whole new level. And in the process not only reduce the number of power adapters you may need to own, but also cut down on e-waste.
379 Million External Power Supplies End Up in US Landfills Annually
E-Waste first: The scale of the e-waste problem, simply from external power supplies which are no longer used, is staggering. In 2008, some 737 million power supplies for electronic devices will be shipped to the US. At the same time 434 million will disposed of as people upgrade to the latest and greatest or after a product breaks. Only 12.6% of these get recycled, leaving the rest to be disposed of in landfills, according to Green Plug’s figures.
Vampire Power Isn't Just Wasteful of Resources, it Costs Money
This is truly an area where the little things do add up. According to the US Department of Energy, a desktop computer consumes about 310 kWh of electricity annually when in standby, a cordless phone about 30 kWh, and a plasma TV a whopping 1450 kWh. That plasma TV could cost you an additional $160 a year in electricity alone.
While individually those may not seem like much—and as David MacKay has pointed out there are bigger energy suckers in our everyday lives—overall US citizens spend a total of $3 billion a year powering devices they aren’t even using.
Drawings of Green Plug’s high-power universal USB connector and concept power hub.
Green Plug to the Rescue
Green Plug’s solution to this is to standardize power connectors and power adapters and to license its Greentalk Universal Power Protocol to electronics manufacturers.
What the consumer would end up with is a central DC conversion hub with a number of connectors to plug your electronic devices into. Green Plug has also developed a high-powered version of the common USB cable to allow charging of high-power devices, which current USB cables can't handle. Plug your compatible devices into the hub and it takes care of the rest to maximize the efficiency of the charging. When the hub is in standby mode it simply powers itself down.
Don’t go recycling all your old external power supplies. You can’t yet buy any products with Green Plug technology in it, though the company is currently offering design kits to manufacturers to integrate into their designs. Green Plug says that you should be seeing its technology in new products sometime in 2009.
More at :: Green Plug
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This is awesome. Not only would this save folks a lot of money, but it could save everyone the headache of having to deal with a different adapter for every electronic device.
Chris
www.everblueenergy.com
Really, just $3 billion? I thought it would be much higher. That works out to about $10/American/year, or about 12 watts. As a country, we consume 500 gigawatts of electricity, which works out to 1700 watts per person.
Wall wart reduction may be great fro reducing e-waste, but if that number for how much vampire power costs us is right, then eliminating it just for the energy savings isn't really worth it. Change one light bulb instead. And if you've already eliminated as much of your other usage as possible, then your remaining time, energy, and money would probably be better spent campaigning to get other people to do the same, than to reduce vampire power.
Every little bit counts, but some bits count more than others. I used to turn off all my devices and all my power strips every time I left home. After I calculated how much energy I saved vs. how much time I was spending, I decided it wasn't worth it unless I was going to be gone for a full day.
This would be a costly alternative to simply pulling off a plug from the socket. And besides it would take major rewiring the whole planet which would result to tons of waste materials.
But anyway the idea is cool.
@Anthony:
You're right, it's not worth the effort for everyone to waste their time worrying about every little milliwatt that their vampire devices waste. That's why developments like this are especially important. Green Plugs may not save each person much money, but if this is built into new devices from the start, we save a ton of power as a nation and no one has to even think about it.
That's why I got a smart power strip for my entertainment system. When I turn off my TV, my DVD player, VCR, digital converter box, etc. get disconnected automatically. It's a lot more convenient than flipping off the power strip every time, and it will work even if I forget about it.
Seems like one of the most obvious and practical "new technologies", along the lines of the CFL. Not THE answer, but definitely part of it.
If this were on the market right now, I would definitely buy it to power all of my gear.
I would pay up to $300 if it could work with my laptop, iphone, etc.
I really wish it were more than just concept art at this time...
GreenPlug, which launched at DEMO 08, is petitioning for national power supply standard, which we hope you will all support.
Here's the story: http://www.demo.com/community/?q=node/30926
here's GreenPlug's video:
http://www.demo.com/demonstrators/demo2008/124686.html
Technically a good idea but nobody's going to buy a rechargeable device that doesn't come with the cable to charge it right there in the same box. Even if standardized you'll still have all that e-waste.
I'm still trying to figure out exactly what use one would have for a cordless phone that does not have "standby" power.
I guess it's sort of like a portable phone booth - you can call out, but no one can call you.
Let's all go back to corded phones - the power is 'free'! (Hidden amongst all the Spanish-American War taxes and whatnot in the monthly bill...)
Ready to rock the Bakelite!
Why don't we steal the power from our phone lines to charge our cell phones and other devices?