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Outlet Wall destroys cable clutter by embracing it
Cable management is one of the most annoying aspects of modern electronics. Pretty much every single device you connect to your computer or home theater needs a power cord, and tons of products — even whole companies — invest their efforts in keeping the knots to a minimum. The Outlet Wall "reverses the telescope" on the entire idea of wire clutter, putting your cables front and center by covering a wall with power outlets.
The concept is pretty nutty but actually kind of cool — and definitely practical. You'll never have to hunt for an outlet again, and the pattern is just as appealing as wallpaper. The power management for such an array would probably be a nightmare (and I wouldn't try plugging toasters into every outlet), but for a media room that's going to have the lights out most of the time anyway, why not?
Ironic Sans, via Engadget
By R3MY at 12:56 PM ON 06/16/09
Holy fire hazard! That would take forever to childsafe.
By Robofalltrades at 1:44 PM ON 06/16/09
Ahhhahahahaha, your comment, R3MY, made me laugh so hard. Thanks!
By jaycbird at 3:48 PM ON 06/16/09
It's sort of retro in that ancient telephone switchboard way....!
By flareback at 6:14 PM ON 06/16/09
What if you have little kids? You'd need a million of those little plastic plug inserts.
By Spaceresearcher at 10:31 PM ON 06/16/09
While an entire wall covered in sockets is simply out of the question for most consumers and rediculous(come on, are you ever going to plug in a power cord right near the roof line???), I do believe it could work if you have say a bank of say 20 X4 or less. So the options of different sizings. Also it would probably make more cost effective sense to have every 2nd outlet an actual outlet and the ones in between spacers as going by the look they were after there, they didn't want every plug to be right next to one another, there aiming for a seperation of the cables.
Another point on this idea, they would need to provide an interferanc note with the wall outlet panel options. For example if you have an indoor antenna, those power cables could really be bad for your reception.
Finally if you wanted multipl points in your house, they would need to specify the current rating of the wall which in itself will render around 90%+ of those outlets useless as you can only power devices together that do not exceed the current rating of the outlets. I suppose you could have each and every power outlet on it's own wiring and circuit breaker, but then your cost will go up even more astronomically than it already would be even with a simple parrallel daisy chain pattern, not to mention the spacing behind the wall required to legally do it(there are minimum distances between power cable runs that must be allowed for).
Food for thought as I'm certain sections of a wall would be within some consumers interests and acheivable.
By salt at 1:59 AM ON 06/17/09
Being an Electrician, that would be a nightmare to wire!
By Tihamat at 7:58 AM ON 06/20/09
ОГО!)ideal killer.Cool idea
By baditup at 1:00 PM ON 06/21/09
nah, salt, just wire them all in parallel and get one helluva power source to push juice to them all, hahahaha.
I'd use every last plug ;)
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baditup:
nah, salt, just wire them all in parallel and get one helluva power source to push juice to them all, hahahaha. I'...More »