Each day at work while I eat my lunch, I hop on Slashdot and see what the latest buzz is in the IT world. I think I read the tech news because it's more interesting to me and less depressing than the real news. Today I ran across the results of a competition that I hadn't yet heard of and the contenders that made it to the top two positions really caught my interest. In classic Miss America form, I'll proceed with the runner-up first, then the grand prize winner:

Second Place

http://www.core77.com/competitions/greenergadgets/projects/4306/ (Hit Ctrl+A to read the description)

Behold the stunning Gravia!

The Gravia is a concept floor lamp (around 4 feet tall) that uses a falling weight to turn a generator that produces the electricity to give off light equivalent to about a 40 watt bulb. Once the weight reaches the floor (after 4 hours), you place the weight back at the top and you have another 4 hours of light.

This is one of those concepts that I wish was a reality and I wish only cost $20 so I could buy one. Because it has a beautiful design, I think this product would do very well if reasonably priced since appearance is so key in a decision to purchase. Stepping past its attractive looks, I'm impressed by the mechanism that converts the potential energy of the weight to the kinetic energy of the weight dropping, then to the electrical energy that powers the LEDs. While I would have imagined the weight falling much faster than 4 feet in 4 hours, the machine is designed to use gearing and resistance to slow the fall as much as possible.

Make me one. Now.

And speaking of making me one, a DIY project made:

First Place

http://www.core77.com/competitions/greenergadgets/projects/4621/ (Hit Ctrl+A to read the description)

This is a homemade product that plugs into your wall outlet that you then plug your electrical devices into. The display shows the amount of energy your device is consuming at any given time, i.e. if you plug in a lamp that uses a 40 watt light bulb you should, theoretically see "40" on the display. Making sure that your light bulb is consuming its proper amount of energy is not very useful but the value of the EnerJar becomes much more apparent when monitoring more complex devices such as your computer, a DVD player, a TV, etc.

Anyhow, I'm not trying to sell this thing...I'm just so excited to get started on building my own! I've been wanting a power monitor for quite some time but haven't been able to justify the cost. Now that these plans are available, I have a low-cost project that won't require as much time as if I'd sat down and engineered the circuits from scratch. Plus, not having to design the circuits gives me a bit of additional time to see if I can shrink everything to fit inside one of the hundred-or-so baby-food jars we have sitting around.

I plan to post pics of my progress once I get started on my EnerJar so check back in a couple of weeks or so!

Labels: environment, product reviews