If all the buzz marketing about recycling stuff and conserving power isn’t enough to win you over, this new concept for a glowing household power outlet might. It’s basically an ordinary power outlet that has a hidden LED that glows red when a plug stays connected for a certain amount of time (read: too long). The red glow becomes brighter as more energy is used, prompting you to kindly unplug and turn your stuff off. Now I have to admit, this is a great idea, but I can’t help but wonder if the creators of this concept ever realized that for this thing to work, it is going to need power. So from what I can see, this glowing socket tries to remind users to stop wasting power, when it’s wasting the power itself by shining with that bright red glow. I hope they find another way to power this thing or else, it’s going to be nothing but an oxymoron — an electric power saver that runs on electric power itself.
I don't think it would really *waste* that much electricity, since it would probably use low-wattage LEDs to do the glowing–they really don't eat much power at all. Another nice idea would be to instead use various colored LEDs to show you how *much* power something is using–so red for high-electricity use, green for barely any use, etc.
Hey now that's a nice idea. But I still think it would be a little bit "better" if they could run this thing on something entirely other than electric power altogether. Don't you agree?
Well, it only "wastes" powere when you are – if everything is off – it is too. So the addition of about 1 watt to tell you you are wasting power is still zero when you are not.