Fujitsu develops smart power strip to help monitor energy usage

The new power strip developed by Fujitsu is quite different from a regular power strip. It has special low power sensors in its outlets to measure the amount of energy being consumed. These contactless sensors only consume about 1W of power and can measure up to 2,000W. These sensors are downsized and optimized so that they fit in the power strip and are unaffected by magnetic fields of corresponding outlets or any other external factors. It also has a USB port, so that the usage patterns can be transmitted over to a computer where the user can analyze consumption using graphs. It also has the feature to measure consumption during a particular time in the absence of the user by means of a scheduler.

Fujitsu recently employed these devices in their offices for testing, and the result was 20% lesser consumption due to the continuous monitoring. There is no information yet available, about the commercial availability or the pricing of this product.
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