Don’t Get Tied Down in Power Cords
Posted by Lisa Carey
Electrical cords were a marvelous invention that brought us the power to lamp light rooms, vacuum floors, blend Daiquiris, blow dry our hair and the list goes on and on. Unfortunately it seems that the electrical cords never did. With all of our newfound electrical freedom, we felt, well tied down. Now we can find a whole new source of power — without feeling tied down.
Electrical cords were a marvelous invention that brought us the power to lamp light rooms, vacuum floors, blend Daiquiris, blow dry our hair and the list goes on and on. Unfortunately it seems that the electrical cords never did. With all of our newfound electrical freedom, we felt, well tied down.
On the other hand, all those electrical cords were sucking up electricity and increasing our utility bills. Even when our electrical devices like televisions and computers are turned off, they are still pulling out electricity. Yes, leaving your hair dryer or toaster plugged up, even when it is off, pulls electricity in what is called the “phantom load.”
Phantom Load Facts
-The phantom load, also called idle current, or stand by power, totals 5 to 15% of your electricity bill.
-The phantom load accounts for 27 million tons of CO 2 emissions in the United States alone every year.
-Oversized AC plugs, those large, cubed transformers, use up to 50% of their regular energy use even when electrical devices are turned off. For this reason, they are sometimes called “vampires.”
-Americans spend almost 4 billion dollars a year providing electricity for electrical appliances and devices that they are not using them.
The power tool industry, like Makita, lwent cordless some time ago for practical reasons. Power tool users needed the freedom of movement and didn’t need the danger of tripping over power cords while operating power tools like drills.
Today consumers have new choices in the cordless market not for just building a home but for living and working inside the home as well.
Cordless Table Lamps
Cordless table lamps can light up a room without the use of an electrical cord running to a power source. Cordless table lamps offer a decorative, practical and even more eco-friendly option for lighting up a room. Cordless table lamps use a rechargeable battery pack instead of electricity. A few examples charge up with electricity but then burn up to 11 hours after being unplugged.
Cordless table lamps are available in a variety of looks. There are traditional cordless lamps that include a lampshade, cordless floor lamps, cordless lamps that resemble jar candles and many modern and unique designs including a coffee cup lamp.
These cordless options allow you to have table lamp lighting in places like bookshelves or entranceways where there are no electrical outlets. Cordless floor lamps really open up the possibilities. No more trying to hide ugly electrical cords or always reading up against a wall.
Cordless Power Mats
Behold the power of a power mat charging system! A power mat is small mat that can be placed on a flat surface. Power mats use induction, or the wireless transfer of power, rather than conduction, a wire transfer of power, to charge your cell phone, computer or Blackberry. To use a power mat, your devices must have a compatible element, which can be supplied by a skin-tight cover.
These new power mats allow you to leave the electrical cords at home and go where no man has ever charge before.
Are your electrical devices making you feel a little tethered to the wall? These new cordless technologies give you the freedom to unplug, the power to save resources and money over time and an opportunity to live a little greener.
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4 Responses to “Don’t Get Tied Down in Power Cords”
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Mohan says:
Hi Jonathan, many wishes; Great job keep doing.
I don’t think “cordless” is the solution for this; might be throwing off our laziness could be better solution.
Just an Example:
Just think what we do to turn off the TV. We use mostly “Remote Control” to turn off/on the TV. To accept the commands from remote control the TV has to have power to keep its reception circuits alive. Instead use the manual push button in the TV / On/Off power cord switch to turn off the TV. This will completely open the power link to TV circuits and no more power will be consumed by the TV.
Same way you can think of for other utility items.
If you use cordless items, ensure that you remove the batteries when not in use/ have a on/off switch to completely disconnect batteries from the circuit/load.
Never use dimmer control to turn off the load. It will just reduce the power supplied to the load and complete disconnect may not happen.
There will be defenitely some enregy loss when the energy is converted from on form to other. When we use batteries, there will be power loss while charging and as well discharging. For example: it may require 1.1Watt of energy to charge 1Watt in battery. When battery of 1Watt is connected to the load you can utilise only 0.9Watt. Hence we lose 0.2watt of energy here. My receommnedation is not use cordless items at home. -
Bob davies says:
I had fun reading this post. I want to see more on this subject as far as power cords are concerned.
Thanks for writing this nice article.. In Any Event, I’m going to subscribe to your rss and I wish you write great articles again soon. -
jerry argo says:
WHERE CAN I BUY THE LAMP IN THE BOTTOM RIGHT CORNER OF THE PICTURE
HI jonathan your doing a wonderful job keeping us greenies informed, i check out these lamps and power mats back in feb, these are a few things i need to know if you charge up your lamp to run 7 hours on a cold winters night , or you leave your corded lamp running 7 hours, i guess the charge lamp is more effective in saving electric, but how much electric are you burning while charging the lamp to give light for 7 hours , also the makers of these products need to make sure, they make the charges last as long as posssible you cant keep charges lamps every 2 to 3 hours. jonathan these are the pratical feed back that we need, all well and good these lamps lasting 2 hours on a charge , we are looking for long length charge time, with info that tells us the charge is running out , keep up the great work that you are doing please please, get more info on these products, i would buy now if i thought they were practical and not just pretty, 2 hour lamp are not really good for anyone , if you got keep charging it, lets lobby the makers of these items ,and tell them what we want, thanks howie