Electrical socket concept forcibly ejects plugs of inactive appliances and devices

Tecca via Yahoo! ^ | Mariella Moon

[DemforBush]

Unplugging each and every appliance and device not in use can be a pain, but it's something you must do if you don't want to pay for standby power — or the energy consumed by electronics while they're switched off. Right now you can use a power strip to make unplugging easier, but if PumPing Tap's designers ever bring their product to market, you don't have to worry about unplugging at all...

[MaxMax]

I only give a crap about MY electric bill. I could care less what others think.
Save the planet, fine, just stay out of my house.

[MaxMax]

I had a toaster oven with a clock/timer until it broke.

[Gandalf_The_Gray]

I think the British have the right solution -- each outlet has an on/off switch.

Don't know about the Brits but there is a commercial with a Japanese family having a quiet evening meal when the son goes into a heavy metal riff on his amplified guitar in his bedroom. The father walks down the hall, opens the door and flips a switch on the faceplate of the floor outlet, restoring peace and quiet while he finishes his meal with a smile. The kid remains clueless. I love the look on dad's face.

Regards,
GtG

[Gandalf_The_Gray]

Sensors on the socket determine whether a device is on and actively drawing electricity, with an external light indicator turning blue if it is or red if it's not. Ten minutes after it pinpoints an inactive gadget, a built-in spring mechanism (which the designers liken to a toaster) pops up to unplug it. It's a pretty straightforward design that aims to curb unnecessary energy use.

So the red & blue indicator lights are therefore a "necessary" energy use? Put me down for the "annoyed" side please.

Regards,
GtG

[Steve Van Doorn]

I can just see it now with everyone duct taping their fixtures to the wall after these soon to be government mandates.

[Freedom4US]

Of course, the dirty little secret is, it’s not really about “saving the planet”, it’s about control. Concern about “the environment” is used as a club to work people over and guilt them into all sorts of absurdities. You’re naive to think “they” are going to stay out of your house. Your toilet, your showerhead, your lightbulbs are already subject to federal regs. Ditto for local code requirements, etc.

SUPPOSEDLY, the base load requirement for power generation has increased in heavily populated areas because of all the AC-DC wall wart adapters and other vampire loads present in the home, enough where bean counters suggest that reducing these loads would hel delay or prevent the necessity of building more power plants, along with the concurrent bond issues to pay for them.

Electricity, though, despite dewy eyed childrens public service admonitions to the contrary, cannot be “saved”; it is either consumed, or not. This is one of the reasons the “greens” War on Coal is so fantastically stupid. The base level requirement in any civilized society is enormous, and constant, it cannot now, and never will be met with alternatives like wind or solar.

[longtermmemmory]

iow all new home owners will spend a fortune UN installing them with normal outlets.

can we add a surcharge tax to environmental groups? its for the children...

[longtermmemmory]

I thought those in congress were too busy looking for new red sequin cowboy hats and trying to figure out where the astronaughts put the flag on mars...

[Rightly Biased]

You can buy the good ones on the black market.

just flush four times even if you don’t need to.

[X-spurt]

Unless there is already a switch controlling the receptacle, adding one to the circuit will either be ugly or not easy. Power strip is easiest solution.

[Clay Moore]

http://www.kussmaul.com/091-159.html

Kussmaul auto-eject plug as used on vehicles. They work good most of the time except when they don’t and you rip the shore line out of the ceiling.

[Balding_Eagle]

The TV is using much less power than it would when the screen is lit up, but it’s still using power. The same applies to computers, printers, monitors, microwave ovens, etc. etc. etc.

Do as I have, and buy one of those gadgets that measure the amount of electricity used by an appliance etc.

What I've found, by actual, careful, measurement, all of the computers, printers, TVs, whatever you have, use less than $10 of electricity per year, all COMBINED.

Not enough to pay for even one disconnect gadget.

[Balding_Eagle]

I needed to include ‘when on standby’.

[MaxMax]

What really is worrisome is that the next generation will be so instituted in the propaganda that they will be even more fanatical than this one.
I hear kids in their homes challenging their parents about being green and planet saviors.
I can't say a word and most of the time neither do the parents by correcting the kid
because they're to busy to keep up on the current jargon filtering into the brats mushy brains.

Americans have a chance to stop this but it will take leadership with major balls
big enough to ignore the status quo MSM, then fire the EPA down to a box sized office
in a cold damp basement near a graveyard.

In the mean time all I, and guessing others can do is financially support
those who claim they will throw out the bureaucracy with the bath water
with the same fortitude as the RATs who invented this fiasco.

/Salute

[Lurkina.n.Learnin]

“dropped democrats off at the pool”

LOL

[floralamiss]

Honestly, dead, I thought the same thing until I tried an experiment last summer and unplugged almost everything until I wanted to use it.

Unplugging each device took only a second, and now I don’t even think about it while unplugging the coffee maker and microwave. Of course, things like media and hard-to-reach cords stayed plugged in.

The following month, I was shocked to find I’d saved almost $50 on my bill and the savings have remained consistent. My house is somewhat large and although the upstairs is totally devoid of furnishings, there were lamps and TV’s and VCR’s, and all manner of little devices plugged in downstairs that were seldom if ever in use. These can really add up!