10 More Cool Green Gadgets to Help You Save Energy

March 17th, 2011 by Zachary Shahan

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The post I wrote last weekend on 3 cool green gadgets for saving energy was quite popular. And while looking around for the coolest, most effective green gadgets I could find, I saw a number of gadgets I almost included. So, as a follow-up to that first post, here are a few more green gadgets to consider purchasing.

Small Devices

USBCELL: Tired of throwing away batteries (and polluting the environment in the process)? But not a fan of those large, clunky battery chargers (or always forget to bring yours somewhere you need it)? USBCELL is a battery that can be recharged by plugging it into a USB port on any computer. Cool idea. (Cost: $10-20 for 2 AA Battery Cell Packs on Amazon — other options also available)

Surge for iPhone and iPhone 3GS: Very simply, Surge keeps your iPhone (3G or 3GS) or iPod Touch going for hours longer without needing to suck energy from the electric grid. It is basically a carry case with a small solar panel on the back. Charge it up wherever the sun is. (~$70 on Amazon.) Similar items, for charging mobile phones, iPods/Mp3 players, PDAs, GPS units, and digital cameras: K3 Wind and Solar Mobile Charger: (~$90 on Amazon); Solio Universal Hybrid Solar Charger (~$90 on Amazon); Freeloader (£16 to £27 on Amazon).

Water Pebble: Probably created by a Catholic, the Water Pebble ‘encourages’ you to use less water by giving you a little guilt trip. It measures how much water you use in your first shower with it in place. Then, in each subsequent shower, lights “flashing gently from green through to red” indicate when you should turn the shower off to save a little more water each time. Of course, by saving water, you are using less energy to heat the water. (Cost: $10 on UncommonGoods)

Eco Kettle 2 (Only UK?): Use a kettle to heat water? If you do, you could probably save a ton of energy by switching to the Eco Kettle 2. It uses 31% less energy than other kettles, on average, and also reduces boiling time by about 90 seconds (no complaint on that). I’m not sure if it’s available in the U.S. — available on many websites, but all using British Pounds. (Cost: £30 to £40)

Intellipanel (Only UK?): Have devices like speakers, monitors, printers, external hard drives, etc that are connected to your TV or computer that you always forget or are too lazy to turn off and unplug when you turn off your TV or computer? These handy adapters will automatically do so for you. (Cost: £8.50 to £21)

Bye Bye Standby Saver: Plug any of your electrical devices into the Bye Bye Standby Adapter and when they are not in use and on standby, you can easily cut power to them with a remote control. The kit includes two wall adapters and a remote control. (Cost: $40 on Amazon)

Similar Product: Standby Buster (Only UK?): Plug this little electrical socket into a normal electrical socket and then plug any electrical devices into it. Whenever those devices are not in use, you can make sure they are using no energy at all (not on standby) via remote control. Again, I only see this for sale in Europe. Reportedly, “Standby Buster is the only consumer electronics mains switch to be recommended by the Energy Saving Trust.” (Cost: £19 on Amazon)











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