[LINK] Australian energy efficiency standards for personalcomputers and monitors
grove at zeta.org.au
grove at zeta.org.au
Thu Oct 18 10:29:55 AEST 2007
On Thu, 18 Oct 2007, Tom Worthington wrote:
> At 03:47 PM 16/10/2007, Pilcher, Fred wrote:
>> ... one of the major power wasters is the plethora of transformers that I
>> need
>> to keep plugged in. ...
>
>
> Under the new standard, all mobile phones, regardless of the brand, will
> be able to share one charger with a USB access, allowing users to charge
> handsets through laptops.
This seems to be part of the global "RoHS" "Restriction of Hazardous
Substances" initiative. I have about 30 wall warts and line lumps
in my studio here, to drive various bits of electronic music gear.
Anyone who has a similar setup will know what an awful pain it is
to keep track of them all, each with it's own unique polarity,
voltage and plug format, in fact it's a nightmare that sometimes
means plugging a 12VAC plug into a 9VDC item, with associated
problems, because they choose to use identically formed plug packs
that have very little to tell them apart in a dark corner when you're
scrabbling around the back trying to plug something in.
I do not know why this wasn't resolved at least 25 years ago, when
wall warts started to become pervasive. It is only recently
you have been able to buy off the shelf solutions that allow you
to chain several devices off one power source and even then they
have to be rated the same.
The problem with the wall wart situation now is that a lot of
second rate gear is coming out of Shenzen, that is capable of driving
a piece of gear, but for audio gear, the quality of the power supplies
has to be quite good, to stop unusual hums, squeals and audio artifacts
creeping into your recordings and it would seem that the new initiative
fails to take this into account, using switchable supplies that
are "universal" in that you can plug them into any wall socket
and get the right rated power anywhere in the world, but these new
ones introduce all the noise because they are not shielded properly
and so on.
My point is that you are still going to have bazillions (a bushism)
of wall warts out there, all with the same plug end but ostensibly
rated differently and with varying degrees of quality and usefulness.
Also is the selection of a USB plug actually a good idea? What if
<insert clueless user> sticks one of these plugs into a USB port
rather than a USB power port?
I believe it is time for the wall wart to go, but only after they come up
with a much better standard and provide something useful that
can drive hordes of them in a domestic or even audio situation....
rachel
--
Rachel Polanskis Kingswood, Greater Western Sydney, Australia
grove at zeta.org.au http://www.zeta.org.au/~grove/grove.html
David Hicks, Nuclear Power, WorkChoices, Reconciliation, Tampa, Iraq, AWB,
Children Overboard, Global Warming. "Who do you trust?" - John W Howard
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