Full FeedGlowing wall socket reminds you to conserve power by wasting power
If all the buzz marketing about recycling stuff and conserving power isn’t enough to win you over, this new concept for a glowing household power outlet might. It’s basically an ordinary power outlet that has a hidden LED that glows red when a plug stays connected for a certain amount of time (read: too long). The red glow becomes brighter as more energy is used, prompting you to kindly unplug and turn your stuff off. Now I have to admit, this is a great idea, but I can’t help but wonder if the creators of this concept ever realized that for this thing to work, it is going to need power. So from what I can see, this glowing socket tries to remind users to stop wasting power, when it’s wasting the power itself by shining with that bright red glow. I hope they find another way to power this thing or else, it’s going to be nothing but an oxymoron—an electric power saver that runs on electric power itself.
Keep up with the latest gadget goodness! - 
Subscribe to our feed
Black Friday 2009
Black Friday is almost here! Gadgetell's got you covered with all the latest news on who's offering the best deals. Dangerous crowds? You're on your own.
Palm Pre Information & Updates
Palm just introduced their next-gen smartphone, the Palm Pre, and next-gen operating system, Palm webOS. Gadgetell's got the latest Pre and webOS information and news for you right here.
I don’t think it would really *waste* that much electricity, since it would probably use low-wattage LEDs to do the glowing—they really don’t eat much power at all. Another nice idea would be to instead use various colored LEDs to show you how *much* power something is using—so red for high-electricity use, green for barely any use, etc.
on March 23, 2008 at 09:44 AM - LINKHey now that’s a nice idea. But I still think it would be a little bit “better” if they could run this thing on something entirely other than electric power altogether. Don’t you agree?
on March 23, 2008 at 01:19 PM - LINKWell, it only “wastes” powere when you are - if everything is off - it is too. So the addition of about 1 watt to tell you you are wasting power is still zero when you are not.
on January 21, 2009 at 02:55 PM - LINK