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  • Author Author: joeman
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See Ben's Energy-saving Universal Wall Wart Episode -- Episode 40

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In honor of Earth Day, Ben talks about energy savings, then builds a Universal Wall Wart. He also tells us some unexpected power drainers in your home and how you can best conserve your power!

  • I have no idea how i missed this episode lol.

    I'm thinking of doing the same idea but making a usb panel so that during a party i can have everyone charge their phone/tablets/laptops/etc..

    hopefuly around 10-12 usb ports.

    My question is how many amps/milliamps is the 5v rail on a power supply actually putting out? would running off of that single 5v rail be enough to get 1.5 or even 2a per port?

  • I did something like this last year for my network. Not to save power... but to free myself from the three power strips required to plug in all the wall warts. I decided to measure power consumption before and after just to see if there would be a savings.

     

    Before: 127 W

    After: 28 W

     

    That's $70 per year where I live! image

     

    Now to build a proper UPS. ( It is just silly to go from 12 vdc to 120 vac to 12/5 vdc. )

  • Pretty cool and useful.  I know for many other USB charged devices, if you short D+ and D- together it will charge at a higher rate than standard USB.  It makes the device think its in AC charging mode.