SmartCut by SmartWatt

Thanks for submitting the proposal, I assume that your proposal submission is still in progress since some of the questions are still incomplete. I am looking forward to your detailed explanation.

Please find the link to some calculations regarding savings it can generate by making this "SmartCut".

http://www.nwu.ac.za/faculty-engineering-energy-saving-home-sleep-mode

I found a link to an existing patent related to such a device, I think there is still scope for improvements.

https://patentscope.wipo.int/search/en/detail.jsf?docId=WO2015030459&recNum=1&maxRec=&office=&prevFilter=&sortOption=&queryString=&tab=PCT+Biblio

Thanks & regards

Aadhithya

Thank you for your comments and suggestions. This project was created by engineering students. They are now studying for their midterm exams. We will get back to you as soon as they are available!

@Eduardo Fracassi Good to hear from you after almost an year after ClimateColab conference, I appreciate you efforts in spreading a word about ClimateColab with students in Argentina.

@Eduardo If the engineering students are working on this, they may want to develop a version intended for computer desks, maybe even controlled by something in the computer.  For a while, I had an external monitor that would consume power and occasionally produce sound when not in use, and I wished to cut power to it when not in use through one of these strips.  However, the computer itself does not actually draw much power, especially when I am not running a compute-intensive job and the battery is charged (it seemed to cycle between using some and none).  The threshold for turning the outlets on was too high, so I used a traditional power strip instead and either manually turned off the monitor by its own switch, or flipped the switch on the power strip.  You may want to buy some of the existing product for the students to use and discover potential improvements.

Also, everything plugged in there converts AC to DC power, and small converters are often significantly less efficient than larger ones.  AC->DC conversion (and managing waste heat from that process) is also an issue for LED light bulbs, and the source for that electricity is increasingly often solar panels or battery backups.   Some sort of DC distribution might offer power saving opportunities compared to inefficient conversions back and forth, but present considerable engineering challenges in managing the diversity of voltage/current specifications as well as the increasing tendency to mechanically integrate the conversion electronics into larger items (e.g. scanners, printers, monitors, etc.) and market challenges (how much would people really be willing to pay for such a device, especially if the power savings don't save them much money?)

Hi Teerth,

thanks for writing and for your suggestions.

It seems that for the moment we will not advance with this proposal. Perhaps we will improve it in the coming months.

Regards,

Eduardo