AP Photo/ Jan Bauer
READ MORE ABOUT:
Cell Phones, flashlights, music players—things like these are practically necessities in the 21st century. Just about everyone has them, yet they suck up electricity, drain batteries, and create waste. And each seems such a trivial contributor to energy consumption that we might not notice that using all our gadgets adds up to a heftier impact on the environment (and our electric bills). They even suck up phantom power when we forget to unplug them.
So how about a hands-on solution? These three gadgets can effectively do the job of some of your wall-charged or battery operated electronics with a turn of a crank subbing in for electrical drain.
Hand Crank Flashlight: Cranking this flashlight for a minute yields about a half hour of shine—with nary a battery or AC adapter to rely on. You can pick this supercharged flashlight up at Amazon.
Hand-Crank Radio: Wind-up radios have been popping up for the last couple years, and they'll likely make a welcome addition to your green arsenal. This one from Sony also features a flashlight and an input for a cell phone—it'll only give you minutes, but in a clutch, that could mean the difference between finding a ride home and being stranded at the beach (in which case, you'll be glad you had the flashlight).
Wind-Up Cell Phone Charger: If those three minutes aren't going to be enough (and when you get on the phone, when is it ever?) you can pick up a crank charger designed specifically to power cell phones. This charger featured in TreeHugger is sold in the UK, but there are plenty of other crank-power providers available at websites like Valuesphere.
-
- {}
