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Utopia: USB power sockets on every wall

26 points| ukdm | 14 years ago |extremetech.com | reply

37 comments

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[+] ars|14 years ago|reply
300 watt sockets? So now I need a high power DC power supply with a fan in every outlet?

Someone is not thinking this through all the way. Even at 90% efficiency you are wasting 33 watts of energy at max, and that is a LOT of heat to generate behind a wall with no ventilation.

Not to mention the power supply is not going to fit in a standard box. Or that good (read: Efficient) DC power supplies are quite expensive.

And you won't be making central power supplies in the basement either. 300 watts at 12 volts is 25 amps! You would need pretty thick cables to do that. At 5 volts it's 60 amps - that would be a wire as thick as what an electrical dryer uses.

He can have as many dreamy smiles as he wants, but this is not going to happen.

[+] mrsebastian|14 years ago|reply
What if we chose a voltage that could be transmitted throughout the house without too many issues -- like 48V?

Then we could step that down in the sockets, to 12 and 5V.

We could also use USB cables that have transformers built in, I guess -- bulges in the cable, or something. But then you're moving away from the 'one cable for everything' idea.

[+] dalke|14 years ago|reply
This looks like a marvelous way to get user data. How much do you trust every USB plug you use? If you plug your phone/music player/tablet into a USB "charger" could it pretend to be a host computer, and get access to all your files without you knowing?

There's no way a USB plug will replace existing power outlets. A 15A line in the US can handle over 1400 W, which is more than the 100W mentioned here or the hypothetical 300W in the future. An induction cooktop draws around 2000W and an electric oven around 7500W.

Plus, a number of devices depend on AC power to drive a induction motor, so there's a huge installed base that can't cheaply be replaced with DC power even there's enough raw power available.

[+] bergie|14 years ago|reply
Most of the devices I have enable you to decide how to use the USB connection. For example, on most Nokia phones you can choose between "charging only", "PC suite mode", and "USB mass storage".

I think my ICS Transformer Prime only provides "media device" and "digital camera" as modes, though.

[+] chrisacky|14 years ago|reply
When I built my office last year, I tried to find USB sockets and couldn't. It was like they didn't exist. I didn't even want ones that could supply a tonne of power, just a bare minimum would be sufficient.

In the end I retro fitting a hub to the wall that connected to my system which is hidden in the wall ,with the cables running under the wooden flooring.

[+] nodata|14 years ago|reply
1. The major flaw with USB is that half the time you have to try again to get the connector the right way round*

2. A 5V television? Not likely. This will lead to more types of sockets. Which is the opposite of what we want.

(* yes I know that the usb symbol should always face up, but that's often misused)

[+] dalke|14 years ago|reply
Especially when the connectors are on the back of the computer, oriented sideways.
[+] brador|14 years ago|reply
I'm not an electrical expert, but:

If you have many USB ports, could you wire something up to run a television from multiple USB 5V ports or is there a voltage/amp issue of some kind in the way?

[+] sjs382|14 years ago|reply
Utopia can be simulated by carrying a little USB-to-Wall adapter in your pocket...
[+] rkangel|14 years ago|reply
However much current you can draw over your USB socket, it's still only 5V. Many devices want a (far) higher voltage than that for charging or powering themselves. A quick glance at my laptop PSU shows 20V, presumably related to the voltage of several Lithium Ion cells in series.

Yes, a given psu could transform the voltage back up with switchmode, but then you've got the horrible transformation inefficiency twice! I wonder how many devices there are out there that actually want that much current at 5V.

[+] kabdib|14 years ago|reply
Standard USB connectors are rated for about 1,500 connect/disconnect cycles. You'll want something more robust built into your wall.

I've worn out the connectors on several game consoles. :-)

[+] gonvaled|14 years ago|reply
Which is a clear display of one of the major flaws of capitalism: duplicity just for the sake of having a competitive advantage.

It just makes me sad to think about how much effort, materials, knowledge and time has humankind wasted in working against each other.

And, just to avoid trolling, I have to say that I am not criticizing capitalism per se, but just this one side of it.

There must be a better way!

[+] spindritf|14 years ago|reply
Is experimenting a wasted effort? Is an experimenter really working against other experimenters? Is there a better way to choose a solution to (virtually any) problem than to test multiple solutions? I don't think there is, at least not without some kind of omniscience.
[+] jcxplorer|14 years ago|reply
I recently stayed at a US hotel that had a couple of USB ports for charging devices. Since I don't like having to buy even more adapters just for travelling abroad, being able to charge all my devices at the same time was pretty handy. Are USB ports in hotels common in the US?
[+] freehunter|14 years ago|reply
My first thought was "but only 5v?" Never heard of USB Power Delivery before. After seeing the picture, I kind of want to rig something like that up in my house.
[+] StavrosK|14 years ago|reply
I saw that when it was posted before, turns out you can't. There are problems with having low-power and high-power ports in the same socket, I seem to recall electricians saying it was unsafe, so you might be risking a fire with that.