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Solar panel and capacitor provide enough charge to switch power on if video stream goes live
New Fujitsu Siemens monitors are the first to consume no mains power in standby mode, the company claims.
A relay cuts off the mains power whenever the video stream stops; capacitors store enough charge to flick the relay back when the signal returns. Solar panels provide enough power to maintain zero consumption mode for up to five days, after which you have to press a regular power button to bring the machine out of standby.
The technology is ready for TVs and can go into any computer monitor, according to the vice president of peripherals at Fujitsu Siemens, Rajat Kakar
The company has applied for six patents covering the technology and the first monitors using it will go on sale next spring.
Standby accounts for eight per cent of domestic electricity consumption, and the figure is rising according to a recent report by the UK Government. Some political parties have called for a Europe-wide ban on unnecessary stand-by.
Fujitsu Siemens showed two 22in widescreen test monitors with power meters attached at a press event in Augsburg, Germany. The display drew 0.6-0.9W when the monitor was switched off using its standby button and with an active video signal from a VGA cable present. When the display signal was switchedc off the monitor drew zero power even though the standby/power button was not pressed
One test monitor made an audible click when turning off (unusual for LCD displays, but common with mechanical relays) and when the video signal reappeared the monitor instantly turned itself back on.
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Re: Patents
Seriously, thinking of the patents on this, how easy would it have been for someone like me to have patented this and now be making money off it? Is it a land grab? The idea seems quite basic - GCSE Electronics grade perhaps - but if it is possible to patent and earn from things like this how easy would it be for the lone inventor to do so? Would there just be some risk that the big corporates would end up able to worm their way around it? Stories of successful small inventors in the past have shown quite some struggle there. Dyson is often quoted but apparently he had to fight very hard for his patent to be honoured. Tommee Tippee, another quite simple idea, also.
Posted by Richard Corfield, 09 Nov 2007
Good idea, obvious
I've been asking for this for ages as it's a very obvious idea. It would make sense in any remote controlled technology where the capacitors or rechargeable battery could keep the infrared receiver running. I should have patented it! Oh well.
Posted by Richard, 09 Nov 2007
Great!!!
Finally someone made progres in this :) Tooo many persons do not realize how much unnesessary power devices are taking. Computers, radio, tv, sat tuners etc...
Posted by raf, 09 Nov 2007
Let's not forget...
Let's not allow ourselves to forget that even though it's not drawing any wall power during standby, it's still USING power from it's capacitors. When the display is asked to power back on, it will need to 'recharge' those capacitors and will end up drawing all of the power normally used during standby all at once to recharge the capacitor. A co-worker of mine calls this "Conservation of Problem." Power usage is power usage. Let's make things more efficient instead of trying to stop drawing power completely.
Posted by walkermc20, 09 Nov 2007
Solar Power ?
I would assume that the Capacitor would only be rechaged by Solar power, therefor there would not be a "Conservation of Problem" as suggested by Walkermc's Co Worker...without knowing the full specification of this device, difficult to know exactly how the capacitor is charged...perhaps the solar power is fed to a battery or similar storage device,always ready to supply the capacitor with a charge..
Posted by Peter Wyatt, 14 Nov 2007
Re: Let's not forget...
You are ABSOLUTELY and TOTALLY wrong. The energy needed to charge a small capacitor (a few hundreds of uF) one time is orders of magnitude less than drawing 1W all the time. The device is saving power. What I don't like: - relay ? expensive, noisy (we are not using relays anymore in these products) - after 5 days you need to press the regular power button (so they need to add that regular power button; new monitors don?t have a regular power button anymore, just a soft on/off; a regular power button (mechanical) is expensive) - solar panel on the monitor: adds cost, mechanical limitations, what if there is not enough light?
Posted by TI, 15 Nov 2007
Well, its all very clever...
I think in many ways it a good thing, its good that people are thinking about the problem, and its good that manufatures see it as a target/sellingpoint. However as people have said, the capciter/solar only lasts 5 or so days and then needs recharging. And solor pannels take making, and the energy and expence of that. What it does really mean however is that its power usage on standby must be very small. Which is good. Becuase some moniter and other products are AWFULL! Someone now needs to tackle freeview boxes, becuase mine draws 35watts on standby. Ten times that of both my samsung moniters. Or my computer. - And my computer speakers draw about 5watts due to there hardwired transformer based powersupply that is always 'on'. That said, i solved the whole problem, but just nobbing the whole lot off at the wall before i got to bed. Daniel
Posted by Daniel Hutchinson, 11 Dec 2007
I can't believe the patent claims
I had published 2 articles, way back in 1992 and 1998 that does the same thing in a different application. I also had developed and presented a circuit and software that turned off the computer with zero power consumption before ATX cabinet came into being. This was at the time when windows used to display Its now safe to turn the power off. With my circuit and software the PC would turn off completely after shutdown with zero power consumption. Too bad I couldn't patent it.
Posted by Sunish Issac, 14 Dec 2007