Anything to get rid of the Wall Warts, is fine with me..........I've got a drawer full of wall warts that I have no Idea what they went to................I thing they breed during the night................
Posted on 03/24/2014 2:35:21 PM PDT by Second Amendment First
A revolution is about to come to the most unlikely of places: those hundreds, maybe thousands, of USB ports scattered throughout your company. This revolution will be all about power distribution and management, the stuff that only interests IT infrastructure staff. But there are wider implications that should make the entire IT organization take notice.
The specification for USB Power Delivery (USB PD) was released nearly two years ago, but devices designed around this standard will only start to appear later this year. The new spec turns the capabilities of the USB port on their head. What was a data interface capable of delivering power will become a power provider with a data interface. Current USB ports provide only 10 watts; devices conforming to the new standard will transmit up to 100 watts. Larger, more complex devices will be able to run with only USB power.
Here's how USB PD will affect IT:
-- It's green. According to a California Energy Commission study, office equipment accounts for 17% of electricity consumption in small commercial office buildings. Most office equipment operates internally on DC power, which must be converted from the building's AC power. While Energy Star power supplies must be at least 80% efficient, some low-end devices are only 65% efficient. USB PD devices reduce energy consumption by delivering direct current in the voltage required for the specific device. It's as if Thomas Edison is having the last laugh nearly a century after Nikola Tesla won the AC/DC power wars.
The USB PD specification mandates that DC current flows in both directions. This allows a computer, monitor and other devices connected through USB cables to receive power from a single AC power supply. And that means less energy is wasted converting power. In addition, it allows the device with the most power in its battery to provide power to the other devices. For example, a laptop could power a phone until its battery is drained and then be powered by that same phone.
New construction could include two sets of wiring to take advantage of USB PD's energy efficiency. One would carry AC power for appliances with large motors. The second would deliver DC current for tablets, phones and other DC-powered electronics. No conversion needed.
-- There's less clutter. Most offices contain a maze of power cords and cables connecting different devices to various power sources. Even organizations that install neat cabling usually find that the clutter grows over time as devices are added. Providing power and connectivity through the same cable significantly reduces the number of cords to manage. This looks neater and means there's less to untangle when changes must be made. More important, USB cables are less expensive than the power supplies they will replace.
-- Travel is easier. Travel becomes easier when all devices can be powered from a single power supply with a USB connection on the end. There should be no need to lug a separate charger for each device everywhere. Or worse, to discover at a customer site that you do not have the one power supply you desperately need. As USB PD becomes more common, office buildings, airplanes and hotels will offer direct USB plugs, potentially eliminating the need to carry power supplies.
Now is the time to begin determining how to capitalize on USB PD and what resources, transition plans and infrastructure changes you'll need. Early adoption earns green cred and long green.
Bart Perkins is managing partner at Louisville, Ky.-based Leverage Partners, which helps organizations invest well in IT. Contact him at BartPerkins@LeveragePartners.com.
Ping!
Anything to get rid of the Wall Warts, is fine with me..........I've got a drawer full of wall warts that I have no Idea what they went to................I thing they breed during the night................
LOL Never heard them called that. Get rid of all the dang power strips as well.
What I don’t like about USB is the way the connector wiggles back and forth in the USB port. I have accidentally bumped into a USB cable a couple of times when it was playing music from an external drive, and it caused the computer to crash.
I label mine with a paint pen to associate it with the device it was initially acquired with.
I notice the first advantage listed is “green”, but in the scheme of things, the power savings will not even be rounding error on power usage. Moreover, not a single thought is given to the total life-cycle environmental burden of rendering devices obsolete and constructing the replacement.
No matter what other reasons this advance is good, this particular bullet point is Typical Magical Thinking by those trapped in green prison.
So I bought this zippy new ultrabook. Razor-thin, you can carry it around in a manila envelope. My portage problems, solved! Well, except for its charger, the phone charger, the external optical drive, the external disk drive, the mouse, the USB hub, the USB thumbs, the wireless AP, the Kindle, the iPad, and the cabling for all that crapola...
I would not have used that particular term, however it should help reduce power consumption as those heat producing converters are eliminated. Those converters end up in the trash anyway as each device has its own particular requirements. A weight reduction for those who travel with numerous devices.
hmmmm...I see a couple of lumpy warts in there...prolly not green enough...wonder what the bounty is? ;-)
Nice idea to be able to sink and source power and to be able to streamline cabling.
When my daughter was seven, she asked why we couldn’t put a windmill on top of the car and power the car with the electricity. That sort of thing is cute when you’re seven.
Already patented! :-)
Only a limousine liberal could afford to double wire their home to take advantage of the energy savings. For the rest of us: what’s the payback period?
USB sucks.
is there any way to tell where they're made??
This is actually a good thing. Some computer data centers are already converting to provide DC within the building. I bought a bunch of AC duplex outlets that provide a pair of USB ports, a couple years ago to power my portable devices. The fewer wall warts, the less wasted energy and space. I'm retired now, but years ago I had to spec out power requirements for data cabinets I installed in the data center to house servers. The servers and UPS's had known power draw, but other devices that would get added were problematic. People were adding wall warts to power smaller devices without taking into account the ability of the cabinet to power everything. More than once, circuits were tripped bringing down systems. I won't get into discussing the office politics of engineers, programmers and contractors breaking rules; it happened. Wall warts are disruptive!
Incidentally, it helps to label your wall warts not only with what device they are paired with, but also their power output and polarity. You'll find they can power other devices with similar power requirements. Use paint or permanent marker, as stick-on labels detach over time.
Thomas Edison’s original ‘idea’ has finally come to fruition. He want to power homes and buildings with DC because he was afraid of AC. Telsa was the expounder of AC wiring because of the ease of which it could be transmitted over long distances with little loss. If Edison had had his way there would have been a generation plant on every block, since DC has such large line losses.
We had to wait until the 21st century for technology to develop efficient devices that allowed them to shrink to micro size in order to fulfill Edison’s dream.
I fully expect that within the next few years all new houses will have built-in USB cabling and a home +5V power supply permanently wired in to all rooms just like the normal AC, audio and TV cables are now.
The next obvious step is microwave wireless power distribution that you can sync into and not even have the necessity of a cable..........................
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