Sunday, August 21, 2011

An Idea for Power Bricks

Laptop Power Brick Specification Proposal (WIP)
I'm still working on this; any constructive input is welcome.
For those of us that are more than a little tired of having to purchase new power supplies every year for our laptops, notebooks, etc.

Getting the power done right:
Let's make this make sense to us, as well as business, or it will not be implemented.
1) The power supply must maintain its own cooling.
  • This one thing alone will help to extend the lifetime of any power supply, especially if that cooling mechanism isn't dependant upon the circulation of air. I'm half-tempted to suggest some sort of internal gel-cooled method, but that's probably expensive, and prone to any number of potential issues.
2) The power supply must have a universal ability to detect and provide power to whatever (laptop, notebook, net-book, etc.) system it is plugged into.
  • Working on the assumption that whatever one is plugging it into is something that it has the proper adapter and physical ability to power effectively.
3) The power supply must be designed to last 5 years or longer, given proper care.
  • Anything less than 5 years seems to be too short. I know that most people consider laptops and computers in general to be ancient at that time scale. My question is: "why shouldn't the power supply be reusable for a new system?"
  • A notebook is still a notebook, and will have similar power requirements over time. So why not re-use existing power supplies? Especially ones that are designed to last a long time. This is more ecologically friendly than tossing out (and purchasing new) power supplies each year, and more cost-effective for end-users/consumers.