CES 2009: Powermat Sports Green Charging, Or Does It?

Jaymi Heimbuch
Technology / Gadgets
January 11, 2009

Photo by Jaymi Heimbuch

Powermat has an exclusive looking booth at CES. I got an appointment to go in and see what their technology has in store for charging gadgets. The basic rundown of Powermat is:You have a single mat that plugs into the wall. Each of your devices utilizes a special charging adaptor specific for its needs, and you just set the device on the mat to start charging via magnetic induction.

I was told that because there's only one wire going to the wall, users are eliminating a significant amount of vampire power. But there doesn't seem to be any specifics out about that and it carries the odor of greenwashing.

Plus, the mat is $100, and each adapter is $30. So it's expensive, and you have to buy all new adapters for gadgets that already come with chargers. Wasteful.

The booth is super exclusive, the run-through was a bit overly slick, so it had the feel of more show than substance, and the literature is extremely vague on any energy savings this actually provides. So while this seems pretty cool, and I'm sure has a lot going for it in the future, I distrust just how green this actually is.

What does seem neat, though, is that the technology used for the mat can be used in walls and counter tops. So you can run devices without plugging them directly into the wall.

I am assured that 100% of the power draw is cut off when a device is removed from the charging area. But again - I'm highly skeptical of any real energy savings.

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Tags: Batteries | Cell Phones | Energy Efficiency | Greenwashing | Vampire Power

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