Category Archives: Gadgets and Tech
Radios have traditionally been powered up by electricity from the grid. Holding a radio beneath a tap to power up, seemed just plain stupid until now. The H2O Power radio is a lot different though and uses running water to power up! Perfect for those showers that have the external hosing running from the tap to the head, this one can be fitted on to just about any place between the tap and the hose, the radio uses a Ni-Mh rechargeable battery that stores its juice. Unlike those water-friendly radios that you can have accompanying you in the shower, this one needs no grid connection whatsoever.
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Behold! We bring you good tidings! Those dead batteries that just dropped out of your wall-clock are not destined for the trash can after all! You can now recharge them and give them a new lease to life! Regular alkaline batteries have always been thrown away, the moment the juice drains out of them. Now, with the WattsClever battery charger, you can charge up dead alkaline batteries! This clever little device with a well suited name uses a microprocessor to minutely control the trickle charge to keep the batteries from overheating. It also charges Ni-Cd or Ni-MH rechargeable batteries. Imagine all the waste you could probably save and the money too, by recharging your dead batteries instead of having to throw them away and buy new ones!
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Tired of those electricity bills that are slowly reaching down to the floor? Here’s a way to cut those heart-wrecking electricity bills short and save energy on the domestic level. You can now reduce your energy consumption by up to 10% and significantly reduce Co2 emissions too, using the VPhase unit, a magical little box that cleverly uses voltage optimization, reducing energy flow to a constant 220 volts, and steadying the fluctuations. The VPhase optimizes energy flow to all your household appliances, including your television and refrigerator. No longer do you need to sacrifice your lifestyle to save up on energy and electricity bills.
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Not so long ago, we came across the solar powered Carousel at Hudson River Park’s Chelsea Cove. Here’s yet another joy ride powered by energy from the sun using GE’s ecomagination technology. Located at the 3rd Street and Congress Avenue in Austin, Texas, this carousel is a blast from the past with a generous layer of photovoltaic cells and solar technology. Hop on to one of the horses or plug in you iPad or mobile phone for a solar powered charge. Using thin film panels, the Carousel gets all its eye-catching appeal with GE’s TETRA Countour LED lights. Also, this one isn’t half as noisy as the Carousels we’re all so reminiscent about. Using an electric motor that’s silent as a mouse, the system also uses GE’s inverters.
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Bathing has never really been a green activity before. We waste a load of water, leaving taps running usually. That’s in for a change though with designer João Gonçalves’ innovatively green approach to bathroom designs The Waterfactory Bathroom Project, unlike every other bathroom apparatus, creates water too! Here’s how. The Corian washstand, toilet and bathtub use an electrically powered system for filtering the humid air in the bathroom. It then condenses it into water! And if you’re worried about just how pure this condensed water is, get a hold of this. The system uses UV filtering and microfiltration to keep those drops sparkling clean!
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Your computer of the future will use a lot less energy than it does today. A new development recently by the researchers from the Electrical and Computer Engineering Department of the University of Illinois, this digital memory unit uses a lesser energy than the ones used in computers today. Using a 100 times less energy than usual digital memory storage units, the new design could help smartphones and laptops in the future work longer with extended battery lives! Using phase-change materials (PCM) that stores each bit in the resistance of the material itself, these storage devices function on low voltages too and are quicker than the usual non-volatile data storage systems.
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Airline travelers usually end up with parched throats before boarding their flights as security checks seize water bottles and packaged drinking water sells at costs that might just have some preferring thirst. The San Francisco International Airport though will quench the thirst of travelers with the Hydration Stations, futuristic water fountains. Travelers are allowed to carry empty water bottles through security checks, and once inside can fill up from the Hydration Stations. This will also help keep away a load of plastic from landfills while supplying travelers with pure water.
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Wires cause a mess. No matter how much you try hiding them away or “neatly” tucking them away, they always show up and raise their ugly springy heads, ripping away the aesthetic beauty of your living space. Wireless devices are the best way to stay organized without a mess on your table top. Now you can charge your hand-held portable devices wireless too! Panasonic has developed a charging table that not only works wirelessly, but also soaks up the sun to power up your devices with renewable energy! Compatible with up to 60 brands, the table helps save up on all the energy you probably might’ve wasted by plugging into the grid.
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Gadget geeks! We bring you good tidings! Samsung Electronics has recently pulled the veil off a working prototype of its very own existing transparent LCD with a few tweaks that have made it energy efficient. Shown off at the CeBIT 2011, the 46-inch full HD resolution (1920×1080 pixels) LCD features a ten finger touch screen surface. Here’s the green part. This one uses solar panels to power-up, that can also function perfectly well, on ambient light too! Cutting down power consumption by an astounding amount indeed, the company might just use similar technology for bigger panels up ahead in the future.
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Little did we know that the muck clogging our unused swimming pools and ponds could actually be an oil well in disguise! Designers Yi Liu, Jiang Yu-ning & Luo Jing have come up with a system that cunningly uses up the muck and transforms it into an energy source of sorts. The system called the Green Transformer Algae Refinery uses the algae found residing in the muck and extracts bio-fuels from them. To power up, the system uses the sun shining bright above. The Green Transformer floats on the water’s surface and combines algae with a chemical additive and derives bio-oil at that very instant. The oil extracted is then stored in a storage chamber until you go collect it.
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