Remote Power Strip with Zero Standby Power Controllable from Every Direction

The standby power consumption of the home appliances occupies 5-10% of the total annual power consumption in Japan. Thus, it is important to eliminate the standby power for the earth environment. However, turning off the standby power consumption of the home appliances is very bothersome job because the power plug of each appliance must be disconnected from the power strip. So we have developed a remote control power strip that standby power is zero by infrared remote control to eliminate that bothersome job. Since the proposed power strip contains the light receiving part, the installation location is strictly limited to the space where the user can irradiate the power strip from the remote controller. This paper attempts to separate the light-receiving part from the proposed power strip. As a result, the proposed power strip can be installed to any location. To allow the user to irradiate the light receiving part from every direction, we introduce a hemispherical mirror that reflect the light from any direction to the receiving part. The preliminary experiment shows that the switching operation can be accomplished actually in all directions.