Mike Bantick
Friday, 03 April 2009 06:56
Science -
Energy
Page 1 of 3
See all those little red lights on your electrical equipment? Remember all those “black balloon” adverts? Feeling too lazy to flick the switch at the point after a gaming session? If so, there are a couple of new products about to hit the Australian market that might save your hip pocket as well as your ever-polluting soul.
If you believe some reports, electronic equipment such as gaming consoles waste the equivalent energy consumption as that of
San Diego in the US.
By comparison, during game-play the Wii uses one seventh the power of a PS3 and one ninth of an Xbox 360. Which is great and all, and manufacturers should be encouraged to build more efficient, cooler and lower power consuming gaming beasts for the next generation.
But the other hidden black balloon producing menace is stand-by power. Again, according to some reports, stand-by power in an average home is responsible for up to
12 percent of the electricity bill .
So what to do about it? Well the most obvious thing to do, is to switch off the device at the power point. If you are already doing this regularly, great, read no further.
The rest of us, who are either too lazy, have an entertainment system with neatly hidden power supplies or awkward requirements for some equipment to be on all the time, may be interested in the following new product.
TrickleStar is a relatively new company, promoting a couple of devices aimed squarely at saving you bucks and the world’s energy by eliminating much of a households stand-by power usage. There will be a number of factors, depending on your household electrical set-up that will determine how effective such a device will be for you.
Both TrickleStar devices are designed for aesthetics as well as functionality. Both employ an Apple-esque rounded white design, with a tinge of fluorescent green. The design is based around the Universal TrickleStar hub which houses the smarts; power-surge protection and wall mount points.
Out from the hub power is connected to the wall socket, from the other end there are two cords; one is the slave connection, one the master. The master connection controls when power is allowed to anything connected to the slave connection. The slave connection in both TrickleStar products is always a female grounded power cord. The second, master connection, defines the two basic TrickleStar designs.
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