Eco Chargers are Increasingly Popular: Charging Technologies Articles: Eco20/20

Eco Chargers are Increasingly Popular

Probably the most inefficient part of any electronic (aside from the batteries) would have to be the charger. A charger can pull and subsequently waste a lot of energy. How many of you take an electronic off of the charger once it's fully charged?

How many of you leave the charger in the plug and simply reattach the device whenever it looks like you might have lost a power bar? Finally, how many of you lose or throw away chargers that either don't work anymore or have been replaced by an upgraded version of the same gadget and gadget charger? If you didn't know already, the answer to all of these questions is 'most of you'. With that in mind, the idea of having an eco charger should be a pleasant surprise for those consumers who have decided to go green, but who aren't yet willing to toss non-biodegradable hardware.

There are a number of well known brand names who have decided to provide eco chargers as an option for their consumers. These names would include:

o iGo
o Saitek
o Nokia
o Android
o Volt-Star
o Sakar

There have been so many innovative and luxurious chargers invented in the past year or two that it's a wonder that it took us so long to come up with it in the first place. For example, look at the Electree. Designed as a miniature solar panel tree, the Electree comes in many different designs, sizes, and colors. The point of the tool is to provide an economically friendly way to collect and store power for your multitude of electronics. It's sort of like having a battery that fits all of your stuff, laptop, phone, ipod, and etc, included.

Another type of charger that's growing popularity is the WiFi powered charger. As you can probably guess, the way that this gadget works is that it charges by using the internet. While if there's no internet there's no power source, this is still a smart way to charge a device without using excess electricity. There's also the added bonus that while there may not by outlet plugs everywhere you go, there's a more than good chance that you will run across a wireless signal somewhere.

The public is also getting more and more interested in solar powered laptop chargers. Never again will you have to worry about your battery dying on you at a crucial moment. As long as there is light out you can just stick your charger into a stream of concentrated UV rays and be good to go. If that particular invention isn't enough to impress you, then how about the power charger bracelets? Slick and inconspicuous, these bracelets work very much like the Electree in that they gather power from the sun as you're going about your day and later on you can transfer the saved power to whatever device happens to need it.

The last, and possibly the most interesting, device that I'll be discussing is the phone charging furniture. Created by Powerkiss, the surface of these eclectic and artistic pieces of furniture, works as a charging pad for cell phones. Overall, it's an invention that holds a lot of potential.

People are beginning to have fun with the idea of going green. It's no longer a chore to save the planet and conserve energy. Instead, it's a contest between corporations to see who can save the most trees while being as creative and technologically advanced as possible. I for one think that the rivalry is a good thing. It just means more cool stuff for people like you and me.