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July 15, 2008

Green Gadgets: Water Powered?

This is another article in our "Green Gadgets" column written by Shane Conder, a guest blogger.

Recently, I happened across a type of gadget I had not yet heard about: a water-powered clock. Intrigued, I found the company who makes it, Bedol, and read about it. Sure enough, you just pour in some water and, if needed, a touch of salt, and it'll power the clock.

The use of water for power, although eco-friendly on it's own, isn't the end of this story.  From what I can tell, another selling point of these clocks is that they don't have the bad chemicals found in battery (and some solar) models. The water-powered clocks also appear to have fewer parts than crank-powered models. This means the clocks are likely pretty eco-friendly compared to a similar battery or solar powered variant.

Since I haven't heard of this type of powered gadget before, I decided to search around for more. I found quite a few clocks and calculators that are powered by just water. I found a clock at Think Geek, a calculator at Amazon, another clock at Lehman's, a different calculator at X-treme geek, and one of each at Ambient Weather. There were other varieties around the web, but I didn't find any other small, electric gadgets that were water powered. I am still looking, though.

It's clear that you can't power much this way. Small clocks and basic calculators use very little power to operate. Many are already solar powered.  However, a water powered version may actually contain better components and, thus, be more eco-friendly overall. I'll have to see if I can find out more information about this.

Posted by shane at July 15, 2008 12:43 PM