Category Archives: Gadgets and Tech
Energy is wasted everywhere today, most of all, at home. We tend to switch on lights and fans at home, in room s that we don’t really occupy. Not everyone’s eco-conscious enough to go around switching off unneeded lights and fans when at home. Well if you’re too lazy to flick a switch to save some power, here’s a counter sensor electricity-cutting system by Botem that showed up at the International Environment Energy Industry Exhibition at BEXCO. The firm specializes in devices and systems like these. The new system detects energy reduction and low carbon-green growth and automatically turns lights on and off on a person’s entrance and departure from a room.
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Street lighting in the future will be a lot more advanced and a whole lot greener than the lamps we have today. And we’re certain of that, looking at what turned up at the ‘International Lighting & Display Exhibition (L&D Korea 2010) in EXCO, Daegu. Yuyang DNU pulled the veil of this system of hybrid LED streetlamps composed of an LED streetlamp (56W). The system can make use of solar energy as well as the wind to power up and lighten up your path. Also, it controls its lighting hours, meaning that no energy is wasted in the form of useless lighting. Depending on the weather, this one automatically selects its best power source and alternates accordingly.
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In China, most people barely spare a second glance to their refrigerators in the colder winter months, and chose to store food on their balconies, a space and energy saving technique. This inspired designer Nicholas Hubert to create the External Refrigerator for Electrolux. Now, unlike the boxy one you’ve got plugged into the grid in your kitchen, this refrigerator keeps its act clean, using solar energy to power up when the sun shines. The refrigerator is equipped with solar panels in its side that help absorb solar juice. The refrigerator mounts on an exterior wall of a home, and slides out towards the window every time you need something from it. In the months of cold, the refrigerator keeps up with the ambient temperature outside to cool food.
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Now here’s a great way to listen to those favorite tracks of yours while on the go, using a bit of renewable energy. The Kinetic MP3 Player by British designer Matthew Smith makes sure you have your music playing, using kinetic energy! The energy generated to power this one up is created due to friction, so be it a jog or a brisk walk home from the supermarket, the Kinetic will just keep pumping those beats. The MP3 player uses a built in kinetic energy generator, that converts all that kinetic energy you create with motion, into power. The player boasts a joystick that you can use to browse through the menus and metal pads on its handle grip, that keep your heart rate in check. This comes handy while working out.
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Innovation with a touch of green does tend to bring a wide smile across our faces. That’s just why we love the Hunter Fanaway Ceiling Fan. The fan is made of recyclable materials and is built sleek and sturdy. Its energy efficient too! This one also packs some pretty eye-catching technology, retractable blades. When switched off, the blades of the fan retract back into its body. The fan uses a WhisperWind motor that’s as quite as a sneaking cat. It produces a pretty awesome airflow too, with 4186 cubic feet per minute. If that’s not all, this ceiling fan is also integrated with energy-efficient, low-power-consuming lighting.
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Electronic devices like cell phones and laptop computers in the future could go a bit lighter and work for hours longer than the one’s we used today, thanks to a super capacitor developed by a team of scientists recently. These are cheap enough and powerful to be used commercially. Also, the capacitor charges in as little as a few seconds and could keep our phones and laptops powered on for days together. Capacitors store energy too, though unlike batteries, that store energy chemically, these store an electrical charge between two conductive plates separated by an electrical insulator. Batteries on the other hand undergo a slow process of converting chemical energy into electricity and last long, though take ages to charge up. Capacitors use no chemical conversion, which is why they charge up a lot quicker and last longer too. Plus, they weigh much less than batteries.
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So your home needs a bit of humidity and you’ve been venting all your weather woes on that silly kitten of yours. Why worry, when you could simply leave your cat to create that required humidity, while you sit back, relax and watch it work! That’s exactly what the Wool Ball Hybrid Humidifier lets you do. All you got to do is, leave the ball shaped concept humidifier in front of your pet, and watch it play while the device creates the required humidity! Designed by Yuan Gu, the Wool Ball Hybrid Humidifier has two operational modes. In one, it connects to the grid to create humidity the normal way. The other mode creates humidity by a roll action. When rolled, it creates a slight sound while the generator juices the battery. The sound entices your pet to play a bit more.
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Id&@le Concepts came up with the GUL Two, a solar powered LED kinetic sculpture which now stands on display at the Elemental Gardens stand at Pacific National. The firm’s name sure looks like a swear word to us, but that apart, this sculpture is just as beautiful as it is green. Standing around 260cms tall, the sculpture made of stainless steel integrates leaves that range from 70cms to a whole 120cms and extend to an overall diameter of around 240cms. This steel flower’s petals are fitted with solar panels measuring 10x5cms that soak in the sun to charge up a 4watt battery during the day time. At night, this energy is then used to power up the GUL Two’s LEDs that illuminates and cast a beautiful glow. The GUL Two automatically recognizes the dark and triggers on its pistils, filaments and stamens that glow bright in the night.
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The University of Leicester has finally realized the need for some green in their computer systems and has spent a whopping $3.3 million on upgrades for the same. The University has recently adopted a clean, green environment-friendly and eco-conscious super computer, ALICE (Advanced Leicester Information and Computational Environment), an energy efficient machine. Though green, this one sure isn’t any less a hard worker than its predecessor. Instead it’s ten times more powerful. The system was created by Hewlett Packard and uses a hoard of central processing units to do the work of several PCs. Using a water cooling system to cool its nerves, this one makes sure it doesn’t have the University spend too much on electricity bills while trying to do away with all the heat it generates.
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Though an e-book is considered to a green alternative to printed newspaper, BenQ intends to make it greener by unveiling a solar powered e-book reader. Unveiled at its 2010 Global Distributors’ Meeting, Taiwan, the BenQ K60 e-book reader with a built-in PV power supply will be launched in 2011. Though this product has hit the production stage, the company also lured keen consumers with a solar powered notebook concept. This green notebook is designed with a PV panel built on the external surface of the cover. Hope such a sun-feeding notebook gets a green signal to hit production too!
[DigiTimes]
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Energy is wasted everywhere today, most of all, at home. We tend to switch on lights and fans at home, in room s that we don’t really occupy. Not everyone’s eco-conscious enough to go around switching off unneeded lights and fans when at home. Well if you’re too lazy to flick a switch to save some power, here’s a counter sensor electricity-cutting system by Botem that showed up at the International Environment Energy Industry Exhibition at BEXCO. The firm specializes in devices and systems like these. The new system detects energy reduction and low carbon-green growth and automatically turns lights on and off on a person’s entrance and departure from a room.