Don’t Plug Your Socket Into A Wall, Plug It Into A Window.
Granted that the current ‘Window Socket’ features European plugs, it is still an idea so fabulously simple, it’s slightly amazing that we haven’t seen one before. Designed by Kyuho Song & Boa Oh, the charger sticks to a window and draws solar power to an internal battery, which enables one to either plug small devices into the outlet right there and then, or save the stored power for use during night-time hours.
Kyuho Song & Boa Oh “tried to design a portable socket, so that users can use it intuitively without special training.” It sticks to a window with a suction plate that encircles the solar panel, and a basic outlet feeds the converted solar power to a device—and that’s pretty much it. As the designers point out, this is a charger/converter that can be used anywhere there’s daylight, particularly where there is restricted use of electricity, such as outdoors or on a plane.
At present, the Window Socket is still a concept, but in the near future the designers hope to increase its efficiency, energy storage and charge time. The battery on the Window Socket is very small, at 1000mAh the stored power might be about enough to charge a mobile phone, particularly if it were a USB outlet rather than a standard one, but it won’t be enough to power household appliances. And while it can provide 10 continuous hours of power on a full charge, it presently takes about 5-8 hours to fully charge. But even that can’t completely take a way from it’s awesome, simple design.
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