Category Archives: Gadgets and Tech
We’ve seen quite a few solar powered charging systems for mobile phones before. Here’s one more that juices the sun for a bit of energy. Developed by Hong Kong and Denver-based firm Nokero International, this solar powered mobile phone charger is mainly aimed for developing regions of the world, where electricity can, at times turn into a luxury of sorts, and proper grid systems haven’t really taken root yet. The charger is currently available in two versions, the 1-watt P101 and the 2-watt P102. The latter is designed to be more powerful than the former, and gets the charging done in half the time.
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Looking to light up that beautifully landscaped home front of yours? Well, you could now do that in an eco-efficient way! Brought to you by Poketo, these illuminated ball-shaped outdoor lights power up with energy from the sun. And yes, they’d do well lighting up your indoors too, though we aren’t sure just how well they’d work away from the sun. The lamps use LED solar powered lights and are waterproof too, to better suit the outdoors. Also, they stay mounted on 30 cm tall stands and are available in clear, green, pink and orange colors.
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We’ve seen quite a few unmanned solar-powered aerial vehicles before. The U.S. Army has just unveiled yet another one with Lockheed Martin. Called the High Altitude Long Endurance-Demonstrator, this solar-powered sky cruiser reached an altitude of approximately 32,000 feet on its trial run and is somewhat reminiscent of a blimp. However, the sculptors of this beauty look forward to having it go up to 60,000 feet. The HALE-D is designed to help with communications in remote areas like Afghanistan, where the terrain is simply too rough to carry communication equipment by land.
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Ever feared winding up stuck in an elevator as the city grid shuts down? Countries like India and Japan recently, have had their share of power outages, and an elevator UPS (uninterruptible power supply) system like this one could be a savior indeed! Developed by Fuji Electric Co Ltd, this UPS also helps save up on energy costs. Using a nickel-metal-hydride rechargeable battery with electricity generated while an elevator is operated in regeneration mode, the UPS’ energy is then used for the elevator in power running mode, helping save about 1,000kWh per year.
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And if you’ve been under the impression that Lego bricks are nothing but child’s play, think again! What we’ve got here, is an energy-efficient custom PC case made from 2,000 black Lego bricks. And yes, its super fast, with 12 cores pumping enough juice to leave your jaw dropped. Built by Mike Schropp, this PC case was originally built for medical use, to crunch data, and can very well capture the imagination of gamers too, with all those cores resting in its belly. Durable enough to work round the clock, this one packs trio of CPUs, coolers, motherboards, SSDs, DDR3 memory and eight fans in all to keep it cool.
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Probably in the future, parking your EV in public parking lots could be a lot more productive, given that Sanya has just unveiled an ideal way to juice up EVs in the outdoors. Called the Skypump, this amazing contraption uses a 150-watt solar panel and a vertical wind-turbine to generate energy by capturing solar energy and wind energy at the same time. And yes, this one doubles up as a street lamp too, using the energy generated in the day, stored in its belly, top power on energy-efficient LEDs at night.
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Why plug your PC into that power socket when you could use solar juice to power up instead? With Simmtronics’ recent solar powered desktop-PC launch in India, computing goes greener than ever. Great for use in areas disconnected from the grid where electricity supply is a phenomena that’s seriously never taken for granted, these desktop PCs are the firt of their kind in India, powering up using solar energy, reducing carbon footprints in environment. And that’s not all. Besides being ever-green, this one also consumes a lot less energy than a standard desktop PC would, making it an energy efficient mode to computing.
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Ever dreamed of capturing the sun’s heat, and putting it to use when the day gets colder? Florent Bouhey Fayolle’s design, the Sun Container, does just that. A solar-energy capturing 120W passive heater, this one stores solar heat in slate fins and releases the heat from the vents in the top to heat up the room. Inspired by the concept of the Trombe wall, the Sun Container was built by the industrial design student at the ECAL institute in Lausanne using glass and an aluminum base.
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There are days when the sun simply doesn’t bother to show, leaving solar panels and chargers around thirsty and parched. Designer Nikolay Bastrakov decided to come up with a solar phone charger, that keeps your phone charged up, even in bad weather conditions, where the clouds take over. The charger is capable of functioning perfectly fine even on cloudy days by absorbing solar radiation in two color spectrums. Also, using a polymer composite of silicone and plastic derivatives, this one’s elastic and strong, resistant to dust, sand and rain too.
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The Netherlands’ Delft University of Technology has come up with a seemingly interesting way to save the national grid some precious watts of electricity lately. The University is currently working on intelligent street lamps with motion-sensors that dim to 20% lower power when no one’s around. this helps the grid and the environment too, helping keep out as much as 80% of Co2 emissions away from the atmosphere. Using LED bulbs triggered by motion sensors, these street lamps detect movement, and the begin glowing at 100% luminosity when someone’s around.
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