After a year and a half long state of stagnation caused by the global pandemic, gears of change are finally starting to turn. Eagerly awaited decisions and measures regarding climate change mitigation, such as transitioning to green energy, are already long overdue.
As we mentioned in our previous blog, the European Union is taking wide strides towards a greener future and fossil free energy production. However, while the wind and solar solutions are proving to be more and more promising, the use of electricity is sky-rocketing simultaneously. We are already seeing the effects of climate change with extreme weather phenomenons. These will most likely increase the need for e.g. efficient air conditioning and heating. Because this will also have a great effect on the electricity consumption, we have no time nor power to waste.
Smart buildings and bright solutions
We are living in an era of smartness, where everything from mobile phones and tv’s to refrigerators and washing machines contain smart technology. Furthermore, the Internet of Things (IoT) enables us to gather data and measure every aspect of our homes. This allows us to adjust the appliances to suit our daily routines, e.g. to turn off or switch to power saving mode, when they are least likely to be needed. This gives us a variety of tools to boost our energy efficiency among other things.
Smart, right. But is it enough? Gathering data is neat, but we still need a person to take the required actions. Shouldn’t this be automatic?
What we need are bright buildings.
The possibilities of BrightCharger technology
BrightCharger is an ingenious innovation that enables cutting down energy consumed by idle chargers and devices, as well as the continuous overcharging of batteries of these devices (e.g. overnight). The number of chargeable devices is increasing fast in both homes and offices. Especially offices tend to have a large number of devices, chargers and charging docks plugged in simultaneously.
Who even has time to plug off every charger of the office when they are not needed? Here is where BrightCharger’s brilliance really shines through.
A charger plugged in a socket controlled by BrightCharger technology consumes as much as 90 % less electricity when idle compared to a regular, dummy socket. For example, we have estimated that if all the households in Finland used BrightCharger to charge their mobile phones, the energy saved every year by cutting down idle charging would be close to the annual production of one nuclear power plant.
Mobile phone chargers are only the tip of the iceberg. Consider all laptops and their charging docks, tablets, e-vehicle batteries, hoovers and other chargeable devices around office buildings that are plugged in constantly – or at least far longer than they need to be. BrightCharger makes sure that no charger is left idle and no device is overcharged. Thus, for smart offices aiming for energy efficiency, BrightCharger solution is a must-have.
In addition to saving energy, avoiding overcharging saves batteries, too! Every Li-ion battery starts to slowly deteriorate as its maximum capacity decreases. Overcharging is known to further speed up this process.
Studies by Cadex Electronics Inc. show that if an average Li-ion battery is recharged to 100% it withstands approx. 600 recharging cycles (or 2 years) before its maximum capacity has decreased to a level where it starts to affect the user experience as the device has to be charged more and more regularly. When overcharging is prevented and the battery is recharged to just 80 % instead of 100 %, the battery endures 900 charging cycles (or 3 years) before reaching the level described above. This gives the device one more year of proper usage time, which furthermore factors in savings from purchasing new devices.
Scalable technology for every need
The BrightCharger technology keeps evolving to suit the needs of developers, manufacturers and consumers. We want to make our innovation as accessible as possible, and are constantly working towards developing perfect solutions for every home and office.
Stay tuned as we are soon to release our newest innovation, that makes implementing BrightCharger technology to every building even more seamless.