Power Hog
Money is the root of all evil and power corrupts.
So, you might as well start educating your children about both at an early age.
Teaching children about power usage can be a difficult task. It’s not easy explaining the concept of electricity to a child, let alone the fact that we have to pay for it. (But, why, Mom?) A cute little pig might help to solve this problem and monitor television and game usage at the same time. Power Hog is designed to teach children about the energy costs associated with their electrical devices.
Power Hog, an adorably pig-shaped power monitor introduces kids to energy efficiency (and general thriftiness) by piggybacking upon the familiar format of the piggy bank. You simply plug the tail into the power outlet and the snout into the electric device, feed in some coins and this little piggy does the rest. When the Power Hog is connected the dollar sign glows green, it fades when there is sufficient credit and alerts you that money is running low by blinking red.
The hog’s casing will be composed of an up-cycled resin made from recycled PET bottles, and it will ship with eco-friendly packaging. The pig itself is 100% recyclable and the cord is PVC free.
The Power Hog was designed by Mathieu Zastawny, Mansour Ourasanah, Tom Dooley, Peter Byar, Elysa Soffer and Mathieu Turpault and won second place in the Greener Gadgets Design Competition held in February 2009.
The Power Hog is marketed to parents who want to teach their children that electricity isn’t a free, never-ending resource as well as those who want a clever way to limit TV time. It is a novel way to associate energy conservation with savings. Even if your kid just unplugs the pig and plugs their device directly into the wall, surely anything that heightens a child’s awareness of power usage is a positive.
May 1st, 2010 at 3:13 pm
Never heard of that before, but thanks for opening up my eyes.