Don’tya just love a simple and clever solution. One of the legacy items in every home that just never seems to get updated is the electrical wall outlet or power socket or whatever you call it. Designed in the dark ages before low voltage transformers and other humungous devices became commonplace, we’ve seen an elegant solution for a powerboard in the Powersquid but we haven’t seen an elegant solution to overcome this problem for the wall outlet until this revolutionary re-take by 360 Electrical.
The concept is simple – the new wall outlets have receptacles that rotate a full 360 degrees in both directions. The receptacles click and hold in 18 different positions, enabling you to find a way to plug in those big fat problem plugs without eclipsing the next outlet. “The idea and patent came from a real world problem. For professional reasons, I was carrying two cell phones and was getting frustrated that I could not charge them simultaneously in the same outlet because of their large plugs,†recalls Kimberly Gerard, 360 Electrical’s president.
Functionally, 360 Electrical duplex outlets maintain the same footprint and provide the same power as conventional 15 Amp, 125 volt receptacles. But the real difference comes in the “plug and turn†technology that allows the insertion of a large plug and the ability to rotate the plug a full 360 degrees to make space for another plug in the same outlet. Receptacles turn and hold in place to accommodate multiple plug sizes and shapes. The patented design allows for devices to maintain power even during rotation.
A standard residential-grade outlet is just the beginning as the company intends to release a whole family of electrical solutions using its 360 degree technology and simple colour-coded instructions to target the DIY replacement market. Additional products in the 360 Electrical line will include GFCI outlets, 20-Amp commercial grade outlets, 250 volt outlets, multiple outlet, plug-in wall taps and power strips.
i'd surely get this in my electronically controlled l33t room