Tuesday, February 28, 2006

 

gizmag Article: Functional redesign of the wall electrical outlet

Someone has invented a wall outlet where each socket rotates. It seems a little bit late to the game, now that most wall warts are better designed.

It got me thinking, though, about the mess I have under my feet as I type this. I have a couple of laptops, a few external disk drives, and a few devices plugged into a USB hub. Guess what? Every one of them has its own AC to DC converter!

The iGo is a product that reduces the problem for a couple of devices, but wouldn't it be nice to have nice, safe DC throughout the house; or, for travelers, throughout the hotel room? Bring DC out to every outlet, just like they did in Manhatten, back when Edison first turned on the Pearl Street generating station in 1883.

Just because it's more efficient to haul AC long distances, why do we have to have a transformer for every transistorized appliance we own? Those things are plugged in and buzzing away whether we're using them or not!

Imagine the benefits of having DC throughout the house. Why can't we bring AC in from the street into a big iGo-like device, and wire that to all our outlets?

That's what I would consider an innovative wallplate.


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