standby monsters

When I was young, I always thought there was something sinister about standby lights. Now that I'm older I'm sure of it. The International Energy Agency estimate that between 5 and 15% of the world's domestic electricity is wasted by gadgets left on standby. Scary, eh?

Standby monsters are small lenses that stick over the standby lights on electronics items, turning them into little pairs of menacing glowing eyes. They give us a little emotional nudge to encourage us to turn our appliances off properly - especially last thing at night.

The little monsters are hollow, with an internal reflective surface. They work by bouncing the light from the LED so that it is split into two beams.

A quick prototype made from card and silver foil tests the theory.

In order to give the standby monsters shelf appeal, they could be sold in small packs, ready to peel-off from a cardboard backing sheet.


Core77 competition finalist - Greener Gadgets conference coverage - a mention from New Scientist - Kill the Coffee Mug competition finalist - International Energy Agency