Smart plugs helping save electricity
by at January 3, 2008 1:11 am
Sections: Gadgets / Other, Household
|
Sign up for the FREE Tell Membership and receive benefits that include the digital edition of Tell Magazine sent straight to your inbox, product giveaways, coupons and much more!
The University of Essex in the UK is working on “extending energy-saving technology to every household appliance” through a intelligent plug that will allow you to monitor the consumption of every device in your house. They have already developed prototypes that are ready to be tested at their cooly named iS-pace department.
The plugs each have a transmitter that communicates with a central receiver so that usage and more importantly waste can be monitored. The really smart bit is that the receiver can beam an off command to shut down appliances that need not be on. Although the project has been called a green Big Brother, the householder retains control and can override the system at anytime.
With £1.8 billion of electricity wasted every year in the UK this seems like an excellent initiative.
Via [The Times]
Related Posts