As a newer and cleverer solution to solve the problem of “overcharging”, Bracketron’s GreenZero chargers can automatically shut off once your devices is fully charged. The GreenZero, available in a Mushroom and Stone styles, is compatible with iPhone, USB, and Android specific models, shutting off automatically to save energy and avoid top-off stress on batteries. Set to be released at CES in Las Vegas later this month, the GreenZero will be priced at $22 to $29.

Designer: Bracketron

Selling Price: $22-$29

How are we going to live the future? According to Philips, in the next few years we should be using wall-mounted vats of bioluminescent bacteria as night light. That sounds bit of weird? Not exactly. Good news is that you don’t need to pay for the electricity bills any more, but instead you have to feed the bacteria with some household waste (which has been digested by other bacteria to form methane gas) so that the bacteria will provide soft green light at night.

【More Information Here】

Along with the improvement of many designs, it is really hard for people to put forward better and cleverer products, but happily Ju-yeon Kim, Jin-beom Kim and Jin-seung Lee have managed to offer us a new package design that promises a more convenient use. It is the EZ Opener, a redesign of the can opener that features an extra handle for people to pull. Undoubtedly the EZ Opener would save the users some energy to open a can, but on the other hand it inevitably needs to cost more metal or other materials.

Designer: Ju-yeon Kim, Jin-beom Kim & Jin-seung Lee

Logitech’s Fold-Up Keyboard for iPad is a smart portable accessory that looks really cool as well. It attaches to the back of the iPad 2, acting as a protective case and a stand for most of the time while offers a full-sized slide-out Bluetooth keyboard when users push the iPad backward. Once folded up, the keyboard then turns off to conserve battery life. Clever.

Selling Price: $129.99

Order it here

One Swedish company recently released this PowerTrekk, a portable fuel cell charger that utilizes water to produce electricity energy. Over ten milliliters of water, either clean water or domestic sewage, is announced enough to have a cellphone or flashlight to work well. Good news is that you’ll soon find it in market and use it everywhere.

More Information Here

In the nature there’re many eccentric plants like pitcher plants that live on small insects, and now there’s a weird clock that can get energy from flies and then creates electricity supply to keep it working. But in fact the clock also gets electricity energy from other apparatus, so it cannot be deemed as “an independent clock that works on itself.”

About 2000 years ago, the great mathematician Archimedes concluded that anything shaped to displace the same amount of water as that of its weight can float on the water. Inspired by that principle, Muzaffer Kocer and Ayca Guven have collaborated with the Water Scale, a measuring device that can read out the weight of the object placed onto the scale plate. It can weigh anything within 1000grams, and it doesn’t cost any energy or result in any pollution- really a green device for household use.

Designer: Muzaffer Kocer & Ayca Guven

The U.S. military recently developed a new Solar-powered Tent that uses a-Si thin film solar cells instead of conventional solar panels to produce electricity energy. Its hourly power generation ranges from 800watt to 3000watt, and the larger the tent is, the more energy it offers.

Whenever I get a receipt, a bill or something that concerns personal privacy, I’d always like to make them into pieces. Not with my hands, but with the Hand Paper Shredder. No need of battery or any power, the smart shredder can easily destroy your documents and then protect you from identity theft.

Selling Price: $23.99

Buy it here

Smaller in size, the new wind power generator however performs much better in producing electricity. And it comes with a nice name, the “Wind Cube”. Made up from blades, a generator, a telescopic shaft, an electric power plug and a switch, one single device can generate 21.6 kilowatt-hours per month and 15 such fans can support one family with four people for a month.

Designer: Liao-Hsun Chen and Wen-Chih Chang

Striving for a new breakthrough in technological innovation, the Energy Return Wheel designed by Brian Russell is an airless tire that can roll flat, save energy and most importantly never get flat during the moving. In that case, the number of traffic jam or traffic accident resulted by a flat tire would be greatly reduced.

Designer: Brian Russell

More Information Here

You’ll never pick up any clean clothes from washing machines unless you take exercise. That’s what we may have to face when China based electronics company Haier launches its Pedal-Powered Washing Machines in the future. Shown at IFA 2010, the eco machine is really simple but practical: the charging battery will power the machine to wash clothes when a man pedals on the exercise bike. And you don’t have to spare too much time, as basically 20 minutes of work can wash one load of clothes on cold cycle. Since the human-powered washing machine would save your money and keep your figure, will it be taken back to your home?

Will you conserve more electricity if the light is as precious as time? Combining the hourglass concept with lights for public places like staircases, Jia Wen Chen and Wei-Ting Chen have collaborated with the Flat Light that will time your lights. Once the LED grains all reach the bottom, the lights will then go off and the time limit is merely about 30 seconds. So our conclusion is, cherish your time and treasure electricity resource.

Designer: Jia Wen Chen & Wei-Ting Chen

More Information Here

Though what you’ve seen from the Seesaw Faucet is mainly fun elements and a distinctive design, Chanhee Han actually cares more about the environment and water energy. As the faucet acts up and down to dispense water from the left side and soap from the right, you’ll no longer have the water keep running when you’re using the soap. In other words, the Seesaw Faucet offers either water or soap at one time, but never both two.

Designer: Chanhee Han

A group of high school students from Automotive Design Studio, a unique class provided by Kansas City based DeLaSalle Education Center for high school students, has created a lightweight electric car that weighs less than 1,200 pounds, which is half the weight of 98% of most electric vehicles. Its body was shaped using a thin wire framework covered with a transparent skin made from a heat-shrinkable material, and that weighs only 39 pounds! Also due to its light weight, the DeLaSalle car is quite well known for energy efficiency, and it can achieve the equivalent of nearly 300 miles per gallon.

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After about forty years of developing a perfect human-powered vehicle, engineer Charles Greenwood has finally come up with a hand-powered hybrid car that has a top speed of up to 60mph. It can seat up to four people: when there’re all four people on the travel, the car can run based on the human power; but when there’re fewer passengers, it can also use electric battery power for a better performance. So the car can be more eco-friendly when there’re more people driving it. Good news is that you’ll soon see this car on the road, as the HumanCar Imagine PS is expected to be on sale next year for £10,000 and the company has received 100 pre-orders. Till then, the Imagine PS will also has a touch-screen display with GPS and biometric data logging, computer, communications systems and other advanced equipment. So do you want one, too?

Designer: Charles Greenwood

Via 

With the technology and design placing towards energy-saving and multiuse, Jia Dai makes the flashlight a new one in the league. The flashlight not only can split open to work as a ceiling lamp, and more importantly, its solar cells can still recharge when in the open lamp status. So whenever you use the MIA Electric Flashlight Lamp, you’re always saving both the energy and your money. Sounds like a good deal.

Designer: Jia Dai

Here’s a new solar powered lamp created by Jesper Jonsson that features a collapsible design for easy transportation and storage. When you unfold and expand its shade via a twisting motion, the smart light then can use the solar powered collected during the daytime to light up your dark night.

Designer: Jesper Jonsson

Unless you’ve left home without your glasses, you’ll no doubt find the Poo-powered VW Beetle running through the streets of Bristol and get impressed with the eye-catching slogan on its smart body which says that “(The car is) Powered by your waste”! Powered by methane gas that is generated during the sewage treatment process, the new VW Beetle is announced as a “breakthrough in the drive to encourage sustainable power”, when many other automakers are also developing new sources of energy to take the place of regular motor petrol. But will the “Bio-Bug” perform as well as petrol-powered cars? Of course it can. It is reported that the new Beetle’s maximum speed is 114 m/h, and it would travel 10,000 miles every year if 70 homes in Bristol provide waste to power it.

More Information Here

Orbital Washing Machine, which takes the very name from the fact that it has a spherical drum spinning on two axes, is an eco-friendly home appliance that would save you great amounts of water and energy. When the machine works, its spherical drum will spin on the two axes to move the clothes in all directions so that they can get washed with little energy and water. Besides, the spherical drum can also be used as a laundry hamper for dirty clothes as it is removable.

Designer: Tiffany Roddis

If you’re using high temperature to dry clothes, you should realize that the heat may damage your delicate dress and shirts. But we can guarantee that problem wouldn’t arise again if you have the DryMate designed by Nico Kläber. It uses a new vacuum technology to dry clothes at much lower temperatures than 100°C, and the lower the air pressure the lower the temperature is needed to evaporate water. Therefore with DryMate, less energy will be consumed and less damage will be made to your clothes. Besides, the new clothes drier also features a rounded exterior and a wide mouth that is tilted up by 9 degree, making it a stylish device for convenient using.

Designer: Nico Kläber

Now I really envy you guys living in the Seattle area, not for the sweet-smelling coffee but the reusable tote bags provided by Amazon. According to Amazon.com, all the residents in Seattle can select to have their items sent in an Amazon Tote bag that asks for no subscriptions or fees from now on. The only bad part about the bags is that they’re only delivered once per week so you may have to wait for several days to see your orders on the doorstep. But what does that matter, as long as these bags can protect both your items and the environment? I love Amazon and I love the idea.

The flowing information is from Amazon.com.

“AmazonTote is a free weekly delivery service from Amazon.com. There are no subscriptions, minimum delivery sizes, or fees. Items delivered using AmazonTote will be brought to your doorstep in a reusable tote bag, free of charge.”

Baita Design has just released Moon Pan, a crescent-shaped pan that fits around any regular pans to utilize the heat wasted by cook tops. With the Moon Pan, you can not only prepare various dishes at the same time, but make a fuller use of the cook-top heat. So that’s really a perfect gadget to help you save both your time and your money.

Designer: Baita Design

Let’s start the article with a familiar situation: we go out to tour around, record the beautiful sceneries using a digital camera, click, click, click…then suddenly the camera runs out of power! That always makes us feel rather depressed. But fortunately that wouldn’t happen again, coz Weng Jie has come up with the Solar Camera Strap, a camera strap built with solar films on the surface to harvest the sunshine as energy for your device. The idea is really simple, but also practical.

Designer: Weng Jie

Who can tell me why the light concept is named as “SolarLight” but actually designed to harvest wind energy for power with its acrylic blades? But whatever, the “SolarLight”  seems like a perfect alternative for the rural parts of the world, where large amounts of wind are available.

Designer: Eon Tae Yoon

Welcome to World One, the world’s tallest residential tower in the future. It is a 450 meters tall building that will be built on a 17-acre site in Mumbai, India, by Mumbai-based Lodha Developers, New York-based Pei Cobb Free & Partners and Leslie E Robertson Associates. The 117-story skyscraper will include two more towers, 300 exclusive flats, lavish villas and a few duplex suites as well.

The World One is also a sustainable building, featuring 100 percent water harvesting and recycling system, VRV air-conditioning system as well as the use of solar energy, which will cut the energy consumption by over 40 percent. According to Mumbai-based Lodha Developers, the tallest building will be completed by the year 2014, costing about $4.25 million.

Designer: Kyung-soo Park

The ‘Clever Little Bag’, a collaborative work between yves behar / fuse project and Puma, was invented as a result of the idea to promote energy efficiency and conservation. The new packaging includes a cardboard sheet and a bag but has no tissue paper, therefore taking up less space and weighing much lighter than usual shoes boxes.

Thanks to GE for coming up with the Energy Smart® LED bulb, we can save much more electrical energy in the future. Compared with ordinary bulbs, the new one can distribute light in all directions, but costing less energy. It consumes 9-W of energy, amounting to a 77% savings compared to 40-W incandescent. It is also said that the LED bulb can last up to 17 years, if you use it 4 hours per day. The GE will launch it sometime early 2011 at a price of $40 to $50.

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Presented here is the solar-powered bus waiting booth, designed by Yang Mingjie for Ningbo South Business District, China. It features a modular design, promising a convenient adjustment while reducing the maintenance and service cost.

It includes three parts: two rising benches on sides for several people to lean on, as well as an advertisement billboard and a city information board in the center. By doing that, ampler space is created for more visitors to stand. Solar panels are also equipped, to harvest solar energy for the advertisement billboard, information center and lights.

Coming with a poetic name ‘Flow’, the bamboo lamps are created as a result of the intention to realize the road illumination on Colombian seaside, where the electric network cannot be channeled. The lamp works on the principle of a vertical wind turbine, and therefore features bamboo blades shaped like a spiral to ‘catch’ the wind in different directions. Apart from that, the ends of the blades are also cut to raise the utilization rate of wind.

Designer: igendesign

I am the kind of person who seldom remembers to unplug the devices when they’re fully charged, so you can imagine how much I’ve paid to the electric power bureau. But the Wind Up Socket, featuring an integrated timer, may change that. All you have to do is to rotate the plug to set the duration. And the socket will then cut off the power automatically, as the time passes by. For forgetful guys like you and me, the socket is really the best choice.

Although named as the “Saving Energy Multitap”, the strip actually won’t directly reduce your electricity cost, but helps you to develop a good habit of unplugging the unused gadgets from the strip so as to save the energy. It sucks up the energy wasted by the unplugged devices and uses it in a rational way—to power the touch-sensitive ambient lights on the wall. The main task of the ambient lights is to remind you to switch off those unplugged gadgets if you no longer use them. As for the ambient lights, they could also be turned on or off via simple tapping.

Designer: Dong Hoon Han, Hwa Yong Shin & Dong Jin Shin

You could always spare the time to unplug each gadget when you no longer use them? Or you just leave the plugs in and let the electricity leak? But you have another option now. Designed by Conor Klein, the Outlet Regulator could disconnect itself from the power source automatically (just like a real leech) when the device gets fully charged. And that’s why the plug is also named as “Leech Plug”. No idea on whether such a conceptual design will ever see the light of day in the real world, but I really love the idea a lot.

Designer: Conor Klein

Flattery must have gotten you everywhere Mr. Lufdesign and I’d like to describe your concept as ‘a stylish cord that lets us see the electricity leaking’. The product is meant for warning the users to pull out the plugs so as to reduce the power waste, through a visible and direct way. Named as “ECord”, the design mainly attributes to the PVC covering that changes colors when a specific range of current (from 1 to 15W) is provided.

Designer: Lufdesign

Can the water tower be used for any other purpose? Just come in and check it out…

Have you guessed right? The gadget is also a speaker system designed for iPod. It integrates a fuel cell that runs on water to provide a stable current for the device, helping a lot in sustaining the environment and reducing the electricity consumption. You only need to ‘water’ the speaker on time to have it work for you. Easy as that!

Designer: Stefanie Koehler

Print your documents with a pencil! Yes, that’s just what the ‘Pencil Printer’ is intended for! You don’t think that is practical? Well, put a pencil into the hole on the top right of the printer, start the machine, and then you’ll see the device printing on paper using the pencil powder…Wow, cool! To top off the great design, Hoyoung Lee also adopts eraser to erase off the printed paper so that you could use the paper again.

Designer: Hoyoung Lee

Creative Factor: Cool machine converts office paper into toilet paper.

The Japanese company Oriental has come up with a machine by the name of ‘White Goat’ recently. It is an innovative machine that converts your wasted office paper into toilet paper in about 30minutes. After you put about 40sheeets of paper into the machine, ‘White Goat’ will then shredder the paper, dissolve it in the water, thin the paper out, and then dry it into toilet sheets. Merely costing $0.11 to churn out one toilet roll, claimed by the company, the machine will save up to 60 cedar trees every year. The cool machine is expected to hit the market in Japan this summer, at a price of $100,000.

More Information Here

Creative Factor: Micro wind turbines allow each family to use electricity converted from wind.

After two years of research, French designer Philippe Starck and the Italian company Pramac have finally come up with the innovative Micro Wind Turbine for urban areas. Philippe Starck Micro Wind Turbines includes two different versions- the ‘revolutionair WT 400W’ is a quadrangular device with a power output of 400w and the ‘revolutionair WT 1KW’ is a helicoidal-shaped turbine that can generate power of 1kw when the wind blows at a speed of 14mps. The blades of both the two types are made of transparent plastic, which is invisible in the pictures. A family may need up to 3 turbines to meet their needs of electricity.

The quadrangular model is priced at about 2,500 euros and the helicoidal shaped form costs about 3,500 euros. Installation cost of each is around 1,000 – 2,000 euros.

Designer: Philippe Starck

More Information Here

It would be nice to preview what our cities will be like in one or two decades, and Norway has already drawn a blueprint of that and named it as the ‘Turbine City Concept’. Several huge wind turbines will be adopted to convert wind into electricity to supply needed energy to offshore hotels, spas and museums. Connected together like an archipelago of islands, these wind turbines also function as a base for passing sailors.

Designed by Hung-Uei Jou, the so-called ‘Green Noise’ is a self-powered runway light that converts annoying noises of the airports into useful electricity. All energy converted by the system is used to power the onboard runway lights and therefore reduce the airport’s energy requirements. The system also features a tripod base, which allows the modular structure to be easily removed for maintenance.

Designer: Hung-Uei Jou

The Power-Hog is an attractive design from the Greener Gadgets Design Competition, and the concept is all about helping the users to develop an awareness of energy conservation. Shaped like a lovely pig, Power-Hog is actually a power monitor that needs to be activated by putting a coin into the metering piggy bank before you use it and a coin offers about 30 minutes of electronics use. Therefore, the more electricity energy you use, the more money you have to pay. And that’s just how the design introduces us to energy efficiency. Good work!

Let’s check out what great changes the bottle dispensers have brought to us. On one hand, the dispensers have made it convenient for us to use shampoo and sanitizer. But on the other hand, that also means a great waste of resource, due to the high demand of plastic bottles. So what should we do to reduce the wastage while still ensuring much convenience? The Eco-pump Refill Dispenser by Bang Ki Ryoul and Junga Kim seems like a clever solution.

It’s an outer shell with a nozzle and pile that fit to all types of refill pouches. As a result, you can directly screw the Eco-pump Refill Dispenser to another pouch when you’ve run out of the shampoo.

Designer: Bang Ki Ryoul & Junga Kim

Though claimed featuring a perfect energy saving property long ago, LED hasn’t been widely used yet due to its high cost of up to 28 dollars each. But that’s no longer true after the Cambridge University researchers have developed the cheap LED bulbs that are priced at merely $2.85 each. Even better, the new LEDs are much brighter than usual one and can last quite a long time of up to 60 years.

You’re paying too much money for the electricity bill! And you look around at all those electrical appliances— TV, refrigerator, microwave oven, etc— but none of them seems to consume much energy. So why not let the Diet Watt to do the calculations of these gadgets for you? The system comes with two parts, the Diet Watt_Sub for displaying the consumption information of each gadget and the Diet Watt_Main for calculating the energy consumption of all the appliances. By doing that, you’re supposed to conserve the resources from planning proper electric energy consumption.

Designer: Hyun Joo Lee & Eu Tteum Lee

So you always forget to pull out the plugs but simply turn off the electrical appliances when not using them any more? Well, my friends, you’re wasting both the energy and your money. And aiming to help you form a good habit of switching off your electrical outlets, Daun Yun and Junil Choi have brought the ‘Switcle’ Concept Design to us. It is a combination of the switch and the receptacle, making the outlet look like a big switch and all that is expected to call for your attention to turn off the outlet.

Designer: Daun Yun & Junil Choi

Who will leave those ugly spiral-shaped energy-saving lamps directly in the air since they have had a hard time designing and fixing their houses? At least I won’t. But after you see the Pigtail Lamp showed here, you may change that opinion and would love to get some home. The designer tactfully associated the ESL’s spiral shape with the pigtail, and finally came up with these lovely lamps. It’s really attractive.

I’m not finding faults with the traditional refrigerators we’re using now, but things always go a way like this: you opened the fridge for a fresh tomato, but as you hunted through the whole drawer, much cold air lost and therefore you had to pay more money for the electric bills. Luckily, the ‘Coolox’ storage system concept is all about saving energy and ensuring you an easy life. It comes with a new look, including several separate modular drawers and special pipes, which transport cold energy from the main module to others. Still featuring a transparent design, each drawers show clearly to you what is contained in them so that you needn’t have to open every drawer to find the item you want. Wait, there’s more! To ensure you always to enjoy fresh meals, each module could be set a certain temperature, due to the individual-temperature-control design.

Designer: Kim Sungi

Please use the lights YOU NEED—Well, we’re required to save power energy from time to time, but how? I mean, we truly can control how often we use the lights, but we couldn’t decide how much energy we’re using since every bulb is designed to illuminate the whole room with certain light intensity. Except the ‘EcoBulb’ designed by Seokjae Rhee!!! It is an adjustable bulb that comes with six distinct sections, each of which could be remotely controlled to change their brightness and lighting directions. As a result, ‘EcoBulb’ will merely illuminate those needed parts of the room with required light. That’s really an amazingly clever idea to save energy and I love it!

Designer: Seokjae Rhee

Since some lights like the floor lamps, chandeliers are designed in a big size with an intense and bright light, while others are designed to be small dots or power indicators with weak and limited light, there must have been certain reasons. So why, you may ask, is the item here designed for? Actually, I don’t know why, either. But believed by the designers, the ‘Light Recycler’ will enhance the light intensity of those tiny dots, making them serve as needed lighting systems and therefore save certain energy. Whether you appreciate or not, that’s really a creative idea which has greatly inspired us.

Designer: Eunsung Park, Hansoon Jeong & Yoonsang Kim