Google’s PowerMeter is going to see the light of day in a slightly different environment: coupled with a power-usage measuring device made by Energy Inc. Initially geared for analyzing the data from ‘smart’ power meters, Google’s software tool will now be usable with the same goal in mind.
The Energy Inc device will run about $200.
Back at 2008’s CES, we featured some new wireless charging technology from Fulton called eCoupled. This year, Fulton produced some videos demonstrating this. Definitely gets the point across better than mere words!
In case you’re thinking this doesn’t look that remarkable – just ask yourself where are the power cords?
Ditch batteries altogether, and run this digital clock on water. Yup, water (and some lemon juice). This green-friendly clock uses its built-in electrodes to sip whatever power it needs from the acidic water.
Just one caveat – you need to change the water every 5-7 weeks. Seems like a small price to save landfills from batteries. Comes in 4 different colors.
Wicked cool. I’d just like it to include an alarm clock, but I’m guessing the power requirements for that are too high for mere lemon water to meet.
Buy now!
More info from the manufacturer
Price: $19.99
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)
Google is currently testing a software tool dubbed the PowerMeter than can tap into the stats that ‘smart’ power meters monitor. It isn’t meant for the power companies so much as it is meant to enable consumers to monitor and shepherd their own usage. Currently, there are over 40 million US homes scheduled to get smart meters in the next 3 years. FAQ.
Here’s a screenshot of what the tool may look like:
What’s in it for Google? Well, it is being run out of their philanthropic arm, so they can argue that it is in the best interest of both consumers and the environment, but there can certainly be more. Robert Cringley believe it’s a precursor to Google becoming your ISP via the power line. Yes, networking over power lines. I think he may very well be right.
Buy Now!
Here’s a product we first featured back at 2007’s CES show. Since then Ecosol has updated their Powerstick product which is a portable USB charger.
It’s an energy cell that is a bit larger than a USB stick, that can be used to power your portable devices. For example, it can fully charge a typical Blackberry. To charge something, just plug it into the device’s regular power adpater interface via an adapter. The Powerstick itself can be recharged simply by plugging it into a computer’s USB port. It can be recharged up to 500 times.
Version 2 of the Powerstick gets to you to 90% of full charge in less than 90 minutes.
Price: $59.99
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)
This nice, compact device gives you multiple (3) surge-protected power outlets plus the ever needed USB power outlets (2). The Belkin mini surge protector is inexpensive and travels well. It rotates 360° with four lockable positions to fit any outlet.
The surge protector is good to 918 Joules with a max spike current of 36,000A. Not too shabby.
Price: $19.99
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)
M2E Power has announced that they will start selling a cell-phone charger that can convert your movements into power for your cell phone and/or other devices. Unfortunately, you won’t be able to buy this device until next year. The other letdown is that the upcoming gadget won’t be built directly into a cell phone. At least not yet.
M2E Power looks like an interesting company as they also take the same idea and extend it to quite a few other environments, such as to soldiers that have to walk around with lots of batteries. Imagine if those batteries were being recharged at the same time they were moving around.
Here’s another very useful gadget from Kensington, particularly if you’re a road warrior that spends any amount of time in hotels. How many times have you gone hunting around the hotel room for those precious few open power outlets to plug in your laptop, cell phone charger, iPod charger and your 4th must-have gadget?
I know I’ve done it enough times to get to the point where I’m seriously wondering if I should unplug the TV or a lamp. Sometimes, I’ve brought a power strip along just in case.
This portable power outlet from Kensington saves you (and takes up way less space than a power strip). It has 3 AC outlets on it as well as 2 USB outlets. So now you can power up your iPod and/or Bluetooth headset without having to plug them into your laptop. This little gem even has some surge protection built in.
Gimme!
More info from the manufacturer
Price: $24.99
(Please note prices are subject to change and the listed price is correct to the best of our knowledge at the time of posting)
Kill-A-Watt has expanded their product line to include a power strip so you can easily monitor the quantity and quality of your electrical power. Simply connect your electronics to the Kill-A-Watt PS, and it will assess how efficient they are while the built-in surge protection keeps them safe. Advanced features such as over current, over voltage, and no load detection provide clean, safe power to your expensive equipment.
You can verify the quality of your electrical power by monitoring Voltage, Line Frequency, Amperage, KWH, Current Leakage and more. The built-in “max amps” switch allows you to optionally select the maximum current (Amps) that the power strip will deliver to attached devices.
Oh yeah… the power strip provides advanced surge protection circuitry.
Suggested Price: $99.99
2030 to me seems too far away, but I’ll take it. The report itself was over 200 pages, which indicates to me that they spent a ‘government’ god-awful amount of money to produce it. Ok, fine, but let’s see if they now spend the important money to make this a reality.
According to the report, it would $6/person/year to implement this. The Wired article wasn’t clear on whether this was every year or just for 1 year, but who cares? At that amount, I will gladly take a line-item tax on my 1040. Persons making less than $40k or so can get that waived.
Other stats – wind power could account for 300Gigawatts of power, reduce carbon emissions from coal and natural gas plants by 25%, drop water consumption by 4 trillion gallons per year. Yes, yes, this will all take some doing including infrastructure overhauls, but do we have a choice? BTW, a town in MO has already shown the way.
