|
contents | technologies | |||||||||
| The most energy-efficient design battery charger in the world  All mobile device batteries have a limited lifespan. Excessive charging of devices consumes unnecessary energy, wears down the batteries and increases the risk of fire due to overheating. Because of this, Harri Tiainen from Finland designed the BrightCharger design charger, which automatically cuts the electric current after charging is complete, even if you forget to unplug your device. Tiainen's simple invention has the potential to significantly reduce global energy consumption. People often charge their smartphones, laptops and tablets far longer than necessary, even overnight. Or they simply forget to unplug their chargers. Harri Tiainen from Muurame in central Finland came up with the idea of combining a mobile device charger, an LED light, design and an egg timer. The result was the most energy-efficient charger in the world, the BrightCharger Finnish design charger. "Mobile device batteries can only be charged for a limited amount of time before they become useless. Why waste it? Keeping chargers plugged in when they're not needed causes overheating of both batteries and the chargers themselves. I wanted to design a safe and energy-saving charger that is also beautiful to look and easy to use," says inventor Harri Tiainen. The BrightCharger is unique in the fact that it cuts the electric current automatically after a set time, even if the mobile device is still connected to the charger. With other chargers currently in the market, power consumption continues for as long as the device is connected to the charger. Even if the device is disconnected from the charger, standby consumption continues as long as the charger itself is plugged in. With the BrightCharger, however, it doesn't matter if you forget to disconnect your device from the charger or unplug the charger for the night. Even if you do forget, the charging and the charger's standby consumption stop automatically. After this, the charger functions as a safe LED night light, which drains only a small fraction of the power that a normal charger does. The light also functions as a charging indicator and makes it easier to find the charger in the dark. Tiainen is currently looking for a global manufacturer for his BrightCharger, so the invention is not available to consumers quite yet. "This is the only way to achieve the massive energy savings I am striving for. With the help of my charger, I want to save the equivalent of at least six nuclear plants of energy globally. However, the only way to shut down these nuclear power plants is to make the BrightCharger a global success. My goal is no less than to change the entire mobile device business," says Tiainen. This goal will be achieved if every person in developing economies and developed western countries who owns an estimated two mobile devices, such as a smartphone, laptop or tablet – a total of some 4 billion people – switches to the BrightCharger. The resulting energy savings would be enough to shut down more than six nuclear power plants around the world. In reality the figure is most likely even higher since modern chargers drain a lot more power than the standby consumption of 2 watt hours per six hours a day used in this estimate. Nuclear power plants are estimated to yield 700 MW per hour with 8,000 usage hours per year. You can test the calculator yourself on the new BrightCharger website at www.brightcharger.com "I hope that the new generation BrightCharger will become the number one choice for all mobile device manufacturers and that every mobile device user will soon be using a BrightCharger. I also want to bring something beautiful to people's homes by investing in the design of chargers and in new lighting features. After all, there's no reason for a charger to be just an ugly black box," states Tiainen. This is hardly a trivial matter, as the number of Internet-enabled mobile devices is estimated to exceed 7 billion as early as this year. That's more than the entire population of the Earth! write your comments about the article :: © 2014 Construction News :: home page |