Step 7: 2 month Update
There were so many concerned people, I thought I would responses to a few of them.
Comment 1. This Project isn't Green and wastes a lot of electricity.
I was concerned about this, so i picked up a Kill-a-Watt and did some testing. from what I understand the kill-a-watt can't measure under 1A, so there is a margin of error. Even after 24 hours on the kill-a-watt. it registered 0! so I guess I'm ok with amount of energy loss, especially considering my printer, DV player and other electronics I barely use draw .01 per hour and more.
Comment 2. The heat from these units are going to cause your house to burn down.
Again this did concern me, and for the first few weeks, every time I walked by this outlet I felt it for any sign of warmth. I found that even with 2 ipods charging, there was no noticible amount of heat from the transformers. However I did notice that the dimmer switch I have in close proximity gets warm, but not enough to cause damage. conclusion: not worried.
NOTE: I did hear about a recall for the apple micro USB charger, they were shorting out and melting. make sure you have a green dot on the power side!
Comment 3. This is a code violation and when your house house burns to the ground, you insurance will not cover it.
Yes this is a code violation, and I'm open to input about how to make it legit. I'm not running wires down to an outlet, I'm only interested in outlet side fixes.
Conclusion:
This was well worth the $10.00 and 10 minutes of my time to make this. It's been nice to have a designated Ipod charging spot. my whole family has ipods and we all use it. now that the neighbor kids know it's there, they bring over their ipods and charge them while they are visiting.
Comment 1. This Project isn't Green and wastes a lot of electricity.
I was concerned about this, so i picked up a Kill-a-Watt and did some testing. from what I understand the kill-a-watt can't measure under 1A, so there is a margin of error. Even after 24 hours on the kill-a-watt. it registered 0! so I guess I'm ok with amount of energy loss, especially considering my printer, DV player and other electronics I barely use draw .01 per hour and more.
Comment 2. The heat from these units are going to cause your house to burn down.
Again this did concern me, and for the first few weeks, every time I walked by this outlet I felt it for any sign of warmth. I found that even with 2 ipods charging, there was no noticible amount of heat from the transformers. However I did notice that the dimmer switch I have in close proximity gets warm, but not enough to cause damage. conclusion: not worried.
NOTE: I did hear about a recall for the apple micro USB charger, they were shorting out and melting. make sure you have a green dot on the power side!
Comment 3. This is a code violation and when your house house burns to the ground, you insurance will not cover it.
Yes this is a code violation, and I'm open to input about how to make it legit. I'm not running wires down to an outlet, I'm only interested in outlet side fixes.
Conclusion:
This was well worth the $10.00 and 10 minutes of my time to make this. It's been nice to have a designated Ipod charging spot. my whole family has ipods and we all use it. now that the neighbor kids know it's there, they bring over their ipods and charge them while they are visiting.
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or a timer that only allows power durring hours that you are present.
http://lifehacker.com/5551253/the-u+socket-charges-usb-devices-without-an-adapter