Standards are critical to commerce. For example "Signaling System 7" was crucial to automating all telephone systems in the world so they could talk to one another. Railroad track widths, standard measurement systems etc have saved the world billions of dollars in conversion costs. Other standards such as tire rims, light bulb fittings, and household power plugs we take for granted.
Standards do force some compromise and can lead to standard "mediocrity" --by slowing down creativity. However some types of creativity are counter-productive and wasteful.
For example, for years every cell phone came with a different type of power converter/charger. Each model came with a different type of plug that was incompatible with other phones, and they provided different levels of voltage and currents. Why did this happen? Each company tried to improve upon their design by making sub-optimized trade-offs.
This practice resulted in several types of waste:
1. Whenever anyone replaced their cell phone, they had to buy another charger to match it and throw away the old one.
2. Because they were unique, they weren't interchangeable. So, if a husband and wife had different cell phones, they also needed different chargers at home, different car chargers etc.
3. Sometimes plugs were similar, so a person could accidentally plug the wrong charger into their phone and actually cause damage.
4. The designs of the chargers were done as cheaply as possible, since they were virtual "throw away" devices. Therefore they all have lower efficiency and actually waste electricity when in use, and when plugged in, but not connected to a phone.
Recently the cell phone manufacturers have agreed to standardize their chargers to a common voltage and plug. This will lead to higher efficiency chargers, fewer being thrown away and much less waste all around.
The same thing could apply to all of the other chargers and power supplies used for all of the other cordless devices. These include electric drills, children's toys, laptop computers, rechargeable flashlights. California has recently established standards for efficiency in battery chargers. See this article in the January 14 2012 North County Times. There are currently 170 million chargers consuming about 13% of the Nation's energy production. More efficient chargers could save a lot of money. More universal standards could prevent the construction and sale of millions of chargers that provide a slightly different power over a slightly different connector--with the goal of planned obsolescence.
The world has been able to live with only a few standard battery sizes AAA, AA, A, B, C, D, and 9V to run so many of our devices. It seems that chargers could also be standardized . The cable connections could also be idiot proofed to make sure that people wouldnt inadvertently connect them to the wrong device.
Standards do force some compromise and can lead to standard "mediocrity" --by slowing down creativity. However some types of creativity are counter-productive and wasteful.
For example, for years every cell phone came with a different type of power converter/charger. Each model came with a different type of plug that was incompatible with other phones, and they provided different levels of voltage and currents. Why did this happen? Each company tried to improve upon their design by making sub-optimized trade-offs.
This practice resulted in several types of waste:
1. Whenever anyone replaced their cell phone, they had to buy another charger to match it and throw away the old one.
2. Because they were unique, they weren't interchangeable. So, if a husband and wife had different cell phones, they also needed different chargers at home, different car chargers etc.
3. Sometimes plugs were similar, so a person could accidentally plug the wrong charger into their phone and actually cause damage.
4. The designs of the chargers were done as cheaply as possible, since they were virtual "throw away" devices. Therefore they all have lower efficiency and actually waste electricity when in use, and when plugged in, but not connected to a phone.
Recently the cell phone manufacturers have agreed to standardize their chargers to a common voltage and plug. This will lead to higher efficiency chargers, fewer being thrown away and much less waste all around.
The same thing could apply to all of the other chargers and power supplies used for all of the other cordless devices. These include electric drills, children's toys, laptop computers, rechargeable flashlights. California has recently established standards for efficiency in battery chargers. See this article in the January 14 2012 North County Times. There are currently 170 million chargers consuming about 13% of the Nation's energy production. More efficient chargers could save a lot of money. More universal standards could prevent the construction and sale of millions of chargers that provide a slightly different power over a slightly different connector--with the goal of planned obsolescence.
The world has been able to live with only a few standard battery sizes AAA, AA, A, B, C, D, and 9V to run so many of our devices. It seems that chargers could also be standardized . The cable connections could also be idiot proofed to make sure that people wouldnt inadvertently connect them to the wrong device.
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