Finnish Inventor Launches 'Intelligent' Phone Charger on Kickstarter to Save the Planet

A Finnish inventor is trying to save the environment and prevent fire hazards by inventing the ASMO charger – the world's first intelligent phone charger that switches off immediately once your smartphone is no longer charging.

After seeing his fiancee's childhood home burn to the ground due to a fire started by a mobile phone charger left plugged into the kitchen wall, IT engineer Asmo Saloranta set out to find a phone charger that could shut down after charging, but to his dismay, he found that none exist today.

"Mobile phone chargers consume power, even if there is no phone connected to it. In one year, for every mobile charger you own, you pay for 8,000 watts of wasted energy, [equivalent to] keeping your laptop running for 260 hours or leaving your lights on for a month," the ASMO video states.

"There are almost seven billion mobile phones in the world. By leaving mobile phone chargers on, we use the equivalent of two nuclear power plants or 25,000 wind power mills."

ASMO charger

The ASMO charger is a 3D-printed AC/DC charger that does not consume any standby power at all. When you plug the smartphone in, the charger uses a small amount of power from the smartphone battery to start the flow of energy.

Once the phone is charged, even if the charger is left plugged into the wall, it shuts itself down automatically and isolates itself from the electricity grid.

"I set myself a challenge to invent a charger that is much safer and consumes no standby power. Two years later, I came up with a solution. It's one thing to aim to be safer and conserve energy, but it's another for the device to do it for you," said Saloranta.

Multiple connectors

The charger comes with several different connectors, including the Apple 30-pin connector (iPhone 4S and below), the new Apple lighting connector and Micro-USB (suitable for most Android phones).

Users can also choose to buy either a US or EU 2-prong plug design by pledging at least $29 (£17) on Kickstarter, but the ASMO charger does not come with the UK-standard 3 prongs design.

ASMO are trying to raise $70,000 on Kickstarter with the aim of delivering preorders to Kickstarter supporters in October. With 29 days left to go, they have so far raised $7,124 with the help of 160 backers.

The ASMO charger "Automatic Stop" technology is currently patent pending and full-scale commercial production of the charger will begin in December, manufactured using 3D printers by Haltian, a company established by ex-Nokia employees.