The ASMO Smartphone Charger – the Intelligent “Green” Smartphone Charger

I love my smartphone; you know you do, too. But most of us Americans are wirelessly chained to a metaphorical ball that appears to outpace our unsustainable trek downhill. The earth is ripped and torn to procure the rare elements that make our smartphones’ existence possible. Nonetheless, today’s smartphones are an essential mixture of convenience, communication, entertainment and intelligence; devices that are indeed so intelligent that they count our every footstep, turn themselves on silent when you are near a preprogrammed location such as work or school, and tirelessly serve as our pocket personal assistants. The Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association (CTIA) – The Wireless Association estimated in June, 2010 that there were 292.8 million active smartphones in the United States, representing 5% of the world’s wireless subscribers. For now, let us ignore the material costs or natural resource uses associated with the production of all of these smartphones and let us focus on the most archaic component you find when unboxing your new toy.

Asmo Saloranta is a young Finnish engineer and entrepreneur who, up until 2013, worked in information technologies.

When an electrical fire stemming from an unattended mobile phone charger consumed his girlfriend’s childhood home, Asmo began thinking of how to best avoid similar events in the future. There were not any products in the market at the time that fit his vision for a safe, energy efficient smartphone charger, so Asmo took it upon himself to come up with a solution. The resulting ASMO Charger is arguably the most interesting innovation to come out of Finland since the modern sauna and heavy metal music. By incorporating a simple relay into the smartphone charger, electric current can be blocked automatically when the device is disconnected.

Conventional smartphone chargers continuously draw electricity while plugged into the wall (vampire power) even when they are not in use, which poses a constant – although small – risk of fire. After a successful Kickstarter campaign, which garnered 533 backers, full scale production of the ASMO Charger is scheduled for December 2014. The ASMO Charger solves this rare issue of smartphone chargers burning down houses while we are away or sleeping, but what other implications are here?

The innovative ASMO Charger was built to address safety issues, but also rewards its owners with a positive externality that is, perhaps, more significant. As the ASMO Charger shuts down following the disconnection of the smartphone, latent electricity consumption is eliminated. Granted, the amount of electricity consumed by idle smartphone chargers is very small – only around 8,000 watts per year each – so savings on your monthly electricity bill will likely go unnoticed. However, 8,000 watts is equivalent to leaving your household lights on for a full month, implying that savings exist at least in some capacity. Still, the electricity savings become enormous when considering that one charger accompanies nearly every one of the 298 million smartphones in the United States; these idle chargers waste a combined 2.3 trillion watts annually.

The ASMO Charger will feature Apple Lightning, Apple 30-pin and Micro-USB connections, covering the majority of smart devices out there. The charger will charge most electronic devices featuring a USB power source – including the iPhone, iPad, iPod, and android smart phones, tablets, MP3 players, and cameras. This simple, energy-saving innovation is one of those ideas that everyone thinks they could and should have thought of, supporting the notion that “the best inventions are often the simplest!” I think to myself, “why didn’t the big phone companies come up with this in the first place?!” Those who contributed to the Kickstarter campaign for the ASMO Charger can expect delivery of the first models this month, with additional orders awaiting the launch of full manufacturing in December 2014. The charger will be both EU and USA compatible.