I did some research on how to file a United States Patent, and I quickly came to the conclusion this is an area in which I’m going to need some outside help. I found a lawyer in Loveland, Colorado who specializes in patents. In fact he was a patent reviewer in Washington, D.C., so I’m optimistic for things to go according to schedule.
Remote costs
I went online to amazon.com and ordered a “Kill-a-watt.” This simple device measures several aspects of the electricity going into anything that plugs into a standard household outlet. The most useful information is the number of kilowatt/hours that are being consumed.
My first step was to plug the Kill-a-watt into the power strip for my entertainment center. My system contains the following components:
- Epson projector
- Sony audio/video receiver
- Dish Network box with Digital Video Recorder
- Playstation 2
- DVD player
Without turning any of the components in, the system was drawing 0.15 kw/h. And what does that mean? Is that too much or a reasonable amount?
annual cost =(0.15 kw/h) * (24 h/d) * (365 d/yr) * (0.08 $/kwh)
annual cost = $105.12 per year
And remember, that is just the cost to leave the components on standby. Acutally using them draws more power.
Another interesting calculation:
last month's kw/h total consumption = 300 kw/h
(0.15 kw/h) * (24 h/d) * (31 d/m) / (300 kw/h) = 37.2%
This means that over a third of my total electrical bill was to leave my entertainment center on standby for the month.
As a side note, I discovered the biggest offender of the bunch is the Dish Network DVR which drew 0.06 kw/h ($42.05 a year). Unfortunately, this is a component that needs to be “on” all the time in order to record TV programs to watch later.
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Resolution
My resoluion this year is to finally do something about my remote control power saving idea. I have been kicking the idea around in my head for a while now, but being a UPS driver seems to take a lot of my time and energy.
Way back in 2000 I was toying around with an idea for a steering wheel for driving games that wasn’t attached to anything. I dinked around with it for a little bit, took apart a used steering wheel controller, and finally decided that it was beyond my electical skills. I’ve always been a software guy at heart.
So when I saw that Nintendo took MY IDEA to resurrect their company with their Wii I was pretty upset. Mostly at myself for not believing in myself enough, or lacking motivation to get things done. I’m not sure which– probably a little bit of both.
So I’m determined to not let this idea pass me by. I’m going to look into it, possibly file a patent, and find someone who wants to buy my idea.
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