Gizmodo Australia » ac

Why Is Japan So Sweaty?

Jack Loftus — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 14:00:00 +0000

Imagine Slate columnist Daniel Gross’s surprise when he arrived at the Nekkei offices in Japan and was greeted by businessmen, sans ties. To appear so casual in the workplace is almost sacrilege in Japan, and yet here it was, happening.

But why?

Simple: It’s the environment, stupid. And ironically, in a country obsessed with technology and where “business casual” is rarely allowed, it’s a low-tech, remove-your-tie solution to the energy consumption problem that’s ultimately to blame for Gross’s, well, gross and sweaty Japanese experience.

You see, in 2005, Environment Minister Yuriko Koike, a woman who had once had perspiration/del> aspirations for the prime minister position, was vetting various ways to cut energy consumption. Her brainstorming led to “Cool Biz,” a campaign that set all government building thermostats to 82.4 degrees during the summer. I’m sweating just typing that out this morning, but apparently it worked, and soon the business world adopted the practice too.

But since those temps are somewhat unbearable in the summer, Japanese energy scientists set to work on alleviating workers’ pain. Their big solution? Suggesting they remove their ties and undo their shirt collars. Fun fact: People feel 4 or so degrees cooler when they do this.

The result is a Japan that consumes less energy at the expense of some ripe-smelling arm pits. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go adjust my air conditioner. [Slate]

AC Adaptor Powers Five USB Ports, Globally

Mark Wilson — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 17:20:00 +0000

This AC adaptor from Brando is pretty nifty. Not only can it power five USB devices, the adaptor can also be used worldwide.

With internal voltage regulation (100-240V) and a number of travel plug adapters, the $US22 “AC to 5-USB Power Adapter” should keep your USB devices fully charged through the US, Europe and Asia. It also looks a lot like a MacBook charger, which you may or may not love. [Brando]

Greencore Semi-Solar-Powered Units Use Both the Sun and the Grid

Gizmodo US Edition — Sat, 16 Aug 2008 17:00:00 +0000

AC manufacturer Greencore has come up with a long-awaited solution to the inherent problem in solar-powered air conditioning units–solar panels are still not efficient enough to power the energy-gobbling machines on their own. The company’s 10200 model uses a single 170-watt solar panel during the day and electricity from the power grid during the night to charge its batteries, leading to massive energy savings even if the solution isn’t 100% solar.

Greencore has three versions of its AC system, a fixed one, a portable one with two batteries and another portable with four batteries. All three run on 24 volts DC and have a cooling capacity of 10,200 BTUs and a heating capacity of 13,400 BTUs. According to the company, McDonalds and the US Navy are already on board with testing the units. [Treehugger]

Cankle Fetishists Rejoice Over AC Brick Spy Camera

Mark Wilson — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:00:00 +0000

This AC wall adaptor is no ordinary AC wall adaptor. It’s loaded with an A/V recorder that can save 66 hours of footage to its 2GB microSD card. And even if the wall socket is turned off, a built-in lithium ion battery will keep shooting for 3 hours of glorious, socket-height footage. Yes, that’s the extreme low angle stuff. We’re talking shoes. We’re talking you didn’t vacuum under that couch. It’s just more evidence piling up to an unavoidable fact. In the future, everyone will know what everyone else looks like naked. Or we’ll at least have some hot shots of one another’s bare feet. [product via ohgizmo]

Samsung’s Vivace Shadow and Neo-Forte Air Conditioners Kill Germs

Jason Chen — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 19:20:42 +0000

Having an air conditioner running during the summer while we’re sitting naked on our leather chairs is luxurious enough, but an air conditioner that also kills germs? That’s just plain opulent. Samsung’s Vivace Shadow and Neo-Forte (black and white) air conditioners do just that, using their Micro Plasma Ion technology to kill 78 percent of fungus and 58 percent of bacteria within 30 minutes in a closed environment. It may look like a printer, but when’s the last time you hung a printer on the wall? [Crave Asia via Unpluggd via DVice]

Socket Sense Power Strip Has the Sense to Slide

Jason Chen — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 19:15:28 +0000

The age old conundrum of AC adapter bricks not fitting correctly on power strips has had many solutions lately, but this Socket Sense seems to be quite a clever one to add to the pile. It looks like a standard strip with the plugs offset at a 45 degree angle, but each socket can actually slide up and down the strip to accommodate larger or smaller plugs.

The Socket Sense isn’t big enough to make for a strip made up entirely of AC adapter bricks, but it should fit a good number more than standard strips—a fair compromise unless you’re going for something like this. Then again, at US$39, you may be better off getting a few normal strips and daisy chaining. [Ideativeinc via The Gadgeteer via Oh Gizmo]

Powramid Power Strip Lifts, Separates Your AC Adapters

Jason Chen — Thu, 03 Jan 2008 21:00:49 +0000

Although this Powramid looks quite similar to the flying saucer surge protector we saw last month, this looks a bit more refined in terms of not looking like some guy made it in his garage. The Powramid has the same six outlets that the flying saucer had, but has their outlets facing right side up, meaning your adapters will hang naturally instead of dangling backwards. And best of all the thing will be only less than $30, meaning that it’s not that much more than a standard power strip. [Blast Magazine]

Flying Saucer Surge Protector Keeps All Plugs Separate

Jason Chen — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 22:40:13 +0000

There have been many solutions to the problem of fat AC adapters clogging up your surge protectors (like this), but this ezSpace UFO flying saucer protector from ezGear looks like it can actually be filled with all AC adapters without colliding. The secret is that it’s pretty huge and shaped like an flipped-over bowl, but it does the job in four and six-plug versions. There’s even a wall-mounted version as well. The first products will ship in January. [EZGear]

Self-Installed Car/Home A/C Unit, Part II

Jason Chen — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 17:00:29 +0000

There’s apparently more than one man who thinks it’s a fantastic idea to strap a home AC unit to a car and drive it around. This Toyota Camry Station Wagon, snapped by a bug-eyed Jalopnik reader, has the AC strapped on the back, instead of the top, so that it can easily kill whoever’s tailgating behind him if the driver ever decides to cut the attachment rope. This is easily the second worst looking Toyota Camry model we’ve ever seen—the first being every other Toyota Camry on the road. [Jalopnik]