Green Plug starts small, signs on Westinghouse

Remember Green Plug? That universal connector we detailed last month which aims to replace wall warts and help Mother Earth out in the process? Turns out, said outfit has just landed its first real believer as Westinghouse committed to using the smart power technology. Even Darwin Chang, Westy's CTO, admitted that his firm "wasn't the largest, but somebody has to be the first." Chang is hoping that utilizing said tech will help it cut costs by eliminating the need to ship power adapters with its wares, but we'd say that's being pretty optimistic. Really, the only way that will go over well is if hordes of other firms jump on the (currently desolate) bandwagon in short order -- any takers?

[Via PCWorld]

[Darkroom @ Jun 14th 2008 11:59AM]

as much as i'd like to see this venture succeed, i just can't see it happening.

[Stephen Barnes @ Jun 14th 2008 12:07PM]

Well said... :/

[BigD145 @ Jun 14th 2008 12:14PM]

Walwarts are a source of income for many companies. Why else do they have every sort of connector under the sun and not a single standard even within a single company?

[tony @ Jun 14th 2008 12:26PM]

If only 2 or 3 of the big boys adopted this I think it could take off. That would be a very, very good thing.

[Chris Macdonald @ Jun 14th 2008 4:18PM]

I could see apple doing it if they weren't so proud of all their current conectors...

[Jon Doe. @ Jun 15th 2008 1:50AM]

Its not about being proud. Its about making a metric shit ton of money by having a patented proprietary interface that no one else can use because licensing would cost Apple sales. Because every time Apple sells a Magesafe power brick the consumer gets raped....just a bit. $80 is an insane mark-up on a power adapter. To give one perspective. The Generic adapter on OWC's site for the G4 is $40. Half the price. But hey. magesafe...Its worth the rapage. I'm annoyed by this because I took my brick into the Apple store last fall because the cable had separated from the brick. Even though I had been careful to wind it around the hooks every time I have to take it somewhere they refused to replace it citing abuse of the cord. It still worked. I electrical taped it, and then duct taped it. But even that didn't keep it from dieing in April. Dropped $80 on it for a part that probably cost Apple $20 to make. But hey. At least it came in a spiffy box. That counts for the marketup. Right? Right?
So the gist of this rant?
Fat chance in hell of Apple giving up the cash cow that is their proprietary interface just to be a little bit greener.

PS- Yes I know everyone marks up their accessories. Accessories are cash cow products for device manufacturers. However Apple is the only one who has a patent that keeps third party manufacturers at bay.

[El Taco @ Jun 15th 2008 5:43PM]

I know exactly what you're saying. This would be really cool, but unless the major companies start making power adapters to them, and people actually start learning about it, and it becomes apple-branded (that makes everything sell 10x faster), this thing will never take off.

[Sasha S. @ Jun 14th 2008 12:01PM]

Why don't we tell the companies we buy products from that we really, really want this technology.

So come on Apple, Dell, HP, Sony, Canon, Philips - get off your lazy butts and adopt this!

You remember those 2 guys who started the movement and brought us original Coke taste back? We can do the same. Power to the people!

[r3loaded @ Jun 14th 2008 12:04PM]

Lol, "power" to the people..

[RikF @ Jun 14th 2008 5:52PM]

"Power to the people"

Thankyou Citizen Smith!

[V Langs @ Jun 14th 2008 12:03PM]

so wait u have to buy another box? and then let it charge up all ur electronics?


crazy...

[pundit @ Jun 14th 2008 12:15PM]

Hopefully this catches on. It's a great idea. If not their tech, then someone elses, but power adapter standardization would be another awesome thing (unless it means the loss of MagSafe...)

That's the biggest negative of the iPhone/iPod: charging through a proprietary connector instead of mini/micro USB

[Felix Fdot @ Jun 14th 2008 12:27PM]

Anyone else who had to think of the verb "to westinghouse" while reading that article? (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Electric_chair#Detail)

And that with that smiley on the screen. Damn propaganda, still works after over 100 years...

[Apreche @ Jun 14th 2008 12:38PM]

I extremely doubt this will ever come to be, but I want it so badly!

[dj-kenpo @ Jun 14th 2008 12:49PM]

green plug should just launch a basic version that charges multi devices (as other companies have) to build an installed base. then talks with these other companies might go smoother.

everyone hates having multi plugs, it's a no brainer, the problem is the people selling multi charge units want WAY too much. given the choice between the free wart that came with a device or some $70 one, I'll take free.

[Derek Bradley @ Jun 14th 2008 1:20PM]

Westinghouse may not be the first, but they are the oldest. George Westinghouse and Tesla designed and built the first hydroelectric plant at Niagara falls in 1910 (correct me if the year's wrong).

[itsnotabigtruck @ Jun 14th 2008 2:18PM]

This Westinghouse is just an HDTV company that bought the Westinghouse brand name.

[Derek Bradley @ Jun 14th 2008 3:02PM]

Ah, ok.

[robmora @ Jun 14th 2008 1:42PM]

On the third pic, what exactly is this "watts/hr" unit of measurement they're trying to use. Energy is measured in kwh (kilowatt-hours) and power, or the rate you're using it is in watts. As far as I'm concerened "watts/hr" is a completely useless and pretty much made-up quantity. That's a bit of an oversight, isn't it?

[Tomheivers @ Jun 14th 2008 2:38PM]

Yes of course, while recharging my phone it uses 1.2 Kwh
...

See my point?

[erunama @ Jun 14th 2008 3:14PM]

No, it's not useless. A kWh represents the total energy used (power multiplied by time). It shows up on your energy bill because it is the total amount of energy you consumed. Watts per hour can be used to show the rate of consumption. Though I have to agree with you that they have made an oversight with the wording. Ideally, they would present both figures. One screen would just the total consumption of a particular device (divided into kWh for the last day, last week, or last month) so you can gauge exactly what effect every device has. A unit like watts/hr could be used to display real-time power use. That way, users have some feedback for the effect of changing settings, modes, etc.

[phanbouy @ Jun 14th 2008 3:28PM]

"A unit like watts/hr could be used to display real-time power use"

ZUH? you mean like, uh... WATTS?

[Echo1 @ Jun 14th 2008 4:14PM]

For simplicity purposes 1 Kwh (kilo watt-hour) is equal to:
1 j/s (joules per seconds)
3,600,000 j/h (joules per hour)*



so if your running a 60 watt bulb
A) it takes 60 j/s
B) it takes 216,000 j/h
C) it takes .06 KwH


*(1000watts x 3600 seconds=3,600,000 W*s (or 3.6 Mj))

I don't see how this will save energy (as it requires energy to monitor the status of devices)

[Echo1 @ Jun 14th 2008 4:21PM]

Just a correction to the above post

A kilowatt hour, if broken down into units of seconds would be 1,000 joules per second (if 1 joule per second is used for an hour it would equal 1 watt-hour or 3,600 joules)

it still stands that a 60 watt bulb, only uses 216,000 joules per hour so it equals .06 KwH (216,000/3,600,000 joules)

sorry for the error in the first post

[Chris Macdonald @ Jun 14th 2008 4:21PM]

but the screen it says the stuff on is green so its good for the environment


-_-

[Tomheivers @ Jun 14th 2008 4:54PM]

It's an intelligent charger. If you leave a normal charger in the wallsocket, it still draws some current (due to the transformator within). Sure, it's not much, but what if you leave it in for a week? If you do this every month ... It adds up you now. Also, I see night charge, at night the power plant keeps "making" power, but nobody's using it to the full potential. This is a huge loss, and it happens every night.

So you see, if everybody starts recharging at night, we'd have less loss.

[why not the LS2LS7? @ Jun 14th 2008 5:07PM]

Almost any charger you use right now is "intelligent", being a class IV switcher. Like those, this one will take power when not in use too. Although this won't take much, those don't either. I guess this would have the advantage that you might have fewer of them plugged in all the time since you don't have one for each device.

[robmora @ Jun 15th 2008 4:17AM]

"Watts per hour can be used to show the rate of consumption."

No, it's just Watts. (Or [kilo]watt-hours per hour if that helps). That's the problem, watts/hr is a completely meaningless quantity when it comes to electrical usage.

How they can screw this up is beyond me, it should be pretty basic stuff for them.

[Brian @ Jun 15th 2008 5:18AM]

@Echo1

Your post came off as a bit confusing, so let me clarify.

ENERGY is used by, among other things, electrical devices.
POWER is the amount of energy a device uses in a certain amount of time.

The Joule (J) is the SI unit for energy. The Watt (W) is the SI unit for power.

1 Joule per second (J/s) is equal to 1 Watt (W). So 60W bulb will use 60 joules of energy every second.

The problem with the Joule is that it's not very big. That 60W bulb uses 216 000 Joules of energy per hour (60W * 3600s).

So the power companies invented their own unit for energy, the kilowatt-hours .

The confusion comes from how people write kilowatt-hours . kWh is kW*h, not kW/h. Since power is the amount of energy used per unit time, multiplying by time gives us an energy measurement again.

So, kilowatt-hours measure energy, not power. Statements like "how many kilowatt hours does the light bulb use" don't make sense. Since kilowatt-hours measure energy, you also need to know how many hours we're talking about. That 60W bulb will use 0.06 kilowatt-hours of energy per hour. But 0.06 kilowatt-hours per hour can also just be written as 0.06 kilowatts, or 60W!

Since Watts measure power, or the amount of energy used per second, it doesn't make sense to ask how many "Watts per second" something uses. Watts per second would measure how quickly the power consumption of a device is changing, which isn't particularly useful unless you're planning on building a power plant.

[BrettB @ Jun 15th 2008 5:58PM]

Thanks Brian. Finally someone gets it correct.

[Travis Pulley @ Jun 14th 2008 5:48PM]

sounds pretty cool as long as hackers can't set your house on fire with it

[phanbouy @ Jun 14th 2008 5:53PM]

i could set the building on fire

[The_Steven @ Jun 14th 2008 5:34PM]

If it ain't bull sh!t, sign me up.

[Anthony @ Jun 14th 2008 6:46PM]

I must say- Westinghouse just got it's first look from me. When these actually start to ship I'll take another. Our HDTV's looking for a little brother for the den.

[Silivrenion @ Jun 15th 2008 10:15AM]

I really fail to see how you are confused by this. kWh is the measurement of kilowatts in one hours time. A Wh is the measurement of how many watts are used in an hours time. It's just a division by 1,000.

Now you may ask, "Hey, that's stupid. Why do that?" Well how many watts does your phone or iPod take to charge? iPod's max charge rate is 5v x 0.5 A = 2.5 watts at any given time. That's not a lot, and I'm sure the numbers are prettier to look at in base units rather than kilowatts or whatever.

Anyway, all of this should be a moot point, because if the device had any sense, it would be configurable to what units you would like to be reported in.

Also, way back up top someone mentioned that iPhone and iPod don't have standardized USB charging. Yeah, they do man. I've already gotten sick of wall warts and have converted almost all of my product choices on the USB standard... (charging phone, iPod, PDA, powering small appliances)

[BrettB @ Jun 15th 2008 6:05PM]

This device isn't just about power consumption. It's about the crazy amount of resources and time spent manufacturing, and shipping power adapters around the world. Sure, one isn't that big of deal, but then you multiply it by how many devices you buy in, say, a year, then by ever person buying those devices. You see it starts to add up. That's materials, energy to manufacture, energy to ship, etc. Of course, most of my mobile devices can be and are charged by being plugged into a usb port on my computer while I am using it. This type of device may be useful to some, but if all mobile device manufacturers converted to usb charging we'd be part of the way there. In a way, apple has been ahead of the curve here. Ipods don't even ship with a wall wart and haven't since Gen 3 or 4. The wall wart is available but you can just charge it using your computer. Anyway, I hope this company success. I'd probably buy into it if I see several companies push it.

[jaredwork @ Jun 16th 2008 4:40PM]

I think it's a phenomenal idea, plus I'm becoming more and more a lover of Westinghouse. I own one of their 42" LCD's, which I've had for about 2 years, and I use it constantly as my computer monitor. It's a great product, one of the best purchases I've ever made.

Westinghouse + GreenPlug = kickass.