The Leech Plug is a concept design by Conor Klein. The Leech mimics the behaviour of its namesake, once it has let the device connected to it to have its fill of electricity, the plug physically disconnects itself from the power supply.

The Leech Plug has been designed to help alleviate the problem of power drain. All devices when plugged into a socket continue to pull small amounts of electricity, chargers for devices such as phones keep taking these small amounts of electricity even when the device plugged into them is fully charged. These small amounts add up to quite a large problem and remembering to remove the chargers from a power supply can often be a lot of hassle and need continuous checking.

The Leech Plug concept idea is that by using a mix of a timer circuit and electromechanics you can get a plug to drop its cord once the device has been charged fully. The plug fits into a normal socket, with a cord to a plug socket to be used by the charger. The Leech can then drop this line when needed, physically cutting the device from the power supply and so stopping any additional electrical draining.

The only real problem with this idea is having to go around and plug the cord back in again when a device needs charging, or having dropped leads everywhere. However with some consideration to how it works the device should work well in any household, and would stop a lot of unnecessary electrical usage.

Source: Engadget

Want to buy this gadget? Check out the Leech Plug – Self Disconnecting Plug Concept article on EnviroGadget to see the lowest prices for this gadget.

© 2008 to 2010 EnviroGadget.com. You can now keep up with the latest eco-gadgets on the EnviroGadget Facebook page. Why not help us to spread the word?

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I recently talked about a kit for Tweeting your Power Usage that was based on a DIY kit. However, there’s now an eco gadget that will internet-enable your appliances quickly and easily. The Watt’s Up? – Internet Enabled Electricity Meter contains a built in web server that allows your power usage details to be accessed via the web.

You can also send the data to a free account on Watt’s Up Meters website, where you can see your data in table or graph format. The meter is capable of sending data up to every second, but there are membership fees associated with sending data so often (free for sending data every 15 min, $50 per month for sending data every second).

The meter also has an internal relay that allows you to switch devices on and off according to certain criteria. These criteria are:

• based on the time of day – useful for tiered billing for energy usage
• peak usage – i.e. switch off devices to ensure the total energy usage is above a peak value. This helps when you get charged extra for going over a peak energy usage amount.
• cumulative usage – i.e. switching off devices once a certain amount of energy has been used in a given month.
• manual on/off – such as switching on security lights or rebooting a computer.

The kit is for US style power outlets, and it has a USB interface for configuration. The power outlet on the device is the outlet that is controlled by the internal relay. Multiple units can be set to work together, and are internet enabled by connecting them via ethernet cable to a router or switch.

Each Watt’s Up? Meter costs an eye-watering $189.99, and there are extra membership fees on top of that for using the data logging system! I think the membership fees are overpriced, but they will probably come down in price eventually.

Want to buy this gadget? Check out the Watt’s Up? – Internet Enabled Electricity Meter article on EnviroGadget to see the lowest prices for this gadget.

© 2008 to 2010 EnviroGadget.com. You can now keep up with the latest eco-gadgets on the EnviroGadget Facebook page. Why not help us to spread the word?

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1. Maplin Electricity Monitoring Meter
2. Kill-A-Watt Electricity Usage Monitoring Power Strip
3. Tweeting your Power Usage with Tweet-a-Watt

With twitter taking off (*ahem*, EnviroGadget is now on Twitter), some bright spark has designed a unit that publishes the power consumption of one of your power outlets to Twitter using a modified Kill-A-Watt meter.

Once you’ve purchased a $25 Kill-A-Watt meter, you can purchase another $90 worth of parts to give you a complete kit to make your own Tweet-a-Watt. You can also buy additional kits for $40 each so that you can monitor multiple power outlets and coordinate them using a single tweet.

What’s the point? Well, it’s a great way to monitor what the power consumption of your gadgets are whilst you’re not at home. You can use it as part of your smart automated home to ensure your power usage is as low as possible too!

Source: AdaFruit

Want to buy this gadget? Check out the Tweeting your Power Usage with Tweet-a-Watt article on EnviroGadget to see the lowest prices for this gadget.

© 2008 to 2010 EnviroGadget.com. You can now keep up with the latest eco-gadgets on the EnviroGadget Facebook page. Why not help us to spread the word?

Related posts:

1. Kill-A-Watt Electricity Usage Monitoring Power Strip
2. Kill-A-Watt Programmable Timer with Graphical Display
3. Watt’s Up? – Internet Enabled Electricity Meter