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Taking the Measure

Rick Nelson, editor in chief of Test & Measurement World and EDN, comments on test, globalization, measurement, machine vision, economics, nanotechnology, the engineering profession, and topics of general interest.



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Thursday, September 3, 2009

Throwing (away) power

Sep 3 2009 9:04AM | Permalink |Comments (8) |


WiTricity gets highlighted on CNN.com today for its truly dreadful idea of reducing the power efficiency of consumer devices—and even cars—by at least 5% and perhaps much worse. (See Paul Rako's "Intel increases consumer-product power consumption 50%.") WiTricity wants everyone to adopt wireless recharging.

Referring to WiTricity CEO Eric Giler, CNN says, "Giler, whose company is a spinoff of a Massachusetts Institute of Technology research group, says wireless electricity has the potential to cut the need for power cords and throw-away batteries."

Huh? Well, you might eliminate a power cord or two, but then you have to add WiTricity's charging pads, and, oh, by the way, you need a power cord to plug your charging pad into a wall socket. As for throw-away batteries, I believe rechargeable batteries have already been invented and are available to anyone who wants them—I don't see what advantage WiTricity's technology provides here.

Now is the time for increasing power efficiency—not reducing it to overcome the very minor inconvenience of having to plug something in to recharge it.

Reader Comments



at 9/4/2009 7:08:26 AM, OneOfMany said:
No. If you want to save power how about turning off all televisions in the U.S.? How about removing all dish washers and letting people wash dishes by hand? How about removing power tools and letting the fat couch boys turn the screw driver by hand? How about turning off all the cell phone towers and using the much much more efficient land lines? Why pick on this one company's product? To me its worthless, but so is the rest of this technology junk.



at 9/4/2009 10:15:16 AM, wd said:
Unfortunately, OneOfMany doesn't understand that Americans will never sacrifice the quality of life all humans are all entitled to. If you want to hand wash your dishes (which btw most of us that cook still do to some degree) and ride your bicycle to work, go ahead. But don't force it on the rest of us. We'll wait for super efficient dishwashers and refrigerators (already here) and 30mpg SUVs (around the corner).



at 9/4/2009 10:23:41 AM, BC said:
OneOfMany, if you are a technology-hating Luddite, why are you reading a technology journal? Online, no less?



at 9/4/2009 10:38:32 AM, Dallan said:
"the quality of life all humans are all entitled to"....WD, are you serious? The only thing we're entitled to is life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. There is no entitlement to electronic convenience or wasteful actions. Jeez!



at 9/4/2009 1:03:33 PM, Tom in Silicon Valley said:
The best idea since bottled water.



at 9/4/2009 8:20:38 PM, tarno_inz said:
"Tom in Silicon Valley", I'm truly jealous that you thought of it first.
You hit the bullseye; I could not have said it better myself.



at 9/5/2009 8:09:08 PM, Tom in Silicon Valley said:
Thanks!



at 9/8/2009 3:45:19 AM, arclight said:
I have to agree with the original article. "Wireless" operation of equipment is wasteful in the extreme.

It's always good to look for ways to improve efficiency. Power supplies are one area we can certainly look. I'd rather spend another $5 on a typical product in order to get a power supply with it that really is designed for efficiency, power-factor correction, and real RF noise suppression. And why aren't we putting the on-off controls in the power supply itself rather than putting them in the end device? We have flash memory for retaining settings; why aren't things OFF when they are turned "off"?

Why are we not asking manufacturers to standardize on some power-supply voltages, and then obtaining really efficient multi-output power supplies that are also RF-clean? Make too much sense?

By switching from air-based to earth-return HVAC systems, we could significantly cut our energy use. That would also create some serious labor needs, since those systems can't be completely assembled by machines.

Tom's comment wins the comment award, I believe; at the very least those who consume beverages (regardless of type) should recycle the containers they come in, particularly if they are plastic, since that's petroleum we are otherwise throwing away.

I project that the growth industry of 20 years from now is going to be landfill harvesting.



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