The first of these is a product from Solio. It’s essentially a portable battery that can be charged either from a wall socket or (preferably) from the sun. Getting a full charge from the wall takes a few hours, while charging from the sun on a sunny day takes about half a day. Clouds and windows are a couple of factors that reduce the rate of charge. As the instructions indicate, it seems that there is not enough radiation coming in on cloudy days to charge from indoors. Getting a full charge from indoors or on cloudy days can take somewhere between 1 and 2 days. At first I thought I might be able to charge my iPhone solely from this charger (which requires about half the capacity of the battery), but this will be difficult in Midwestern winters. Maybe I’ll have better luck in the summer. In any case, at least I can guarantee that some of the energy in my phone is carbon-free.

Another great thing about the latest version of this charger is that it uses the iGo system. I hadn’t heard of this before, but it’s a great idea. There is one cable that plugs into the device, and a host of tips that plug onto the cable to accommodate portable devices from cell phones to music players to Game Boys. You can even purchase other types of cables so that the system can be used for charging in the car or directly from the wall. This means that less material is used to produce cables and power adapters. The charger comes with a set of tips for some of the more common phones, but I had to buy a special one to handle the 3G iPhone.

The other find relates to an earlier post that I did on efficiency. I had used another gadget to estimate that my entertainment center costs me about $60 annually just when everything is “powered off” (aka, in standby). Since then, I’ve planned on finding a solution to that problem. Everything in the cabinet runs from one surge protector, which does have a switch. The difficulties have been that the TiVo and antenna should remain powered on while everything else switches off, and that the switch isn’t very easy to reach on the floor behind the cabinet.

Enter the Belkin Conserve surge protector. An absolutely brilliant idea that I hadn’t expected to discover, but it solves my dilemma perfectly. Like another surge protector that I own, two of its outlets are unswitched. This means that the TiVo and antenna can stay on to diligently record NOVA, Biggest Loser, American Idol, and The Big Bang Theory. But the remote switch is where the genius comes in. The switch fits into a slim mount that can be either stuck or screwed (or both, I suppose) onto a wall or other convenient surface, but can be removed and kept someplace more at-hand. It can also be configured to control multiple surge protector units (for those of us geeks who require a copious number of outlets). Another huge plus… it cost $40. So, according to my estimate it will pay for itself in 8 months, and leave an extra $60 in my pocket every year after that… which might be enough to cover the cost of my addiction to books.

The fact that these products can be found on store shelves is evidence that the era of energy efficiency has arrived.