We have Pay As You Go energy in our new home. It’s a primitive system that involves topping up gas card or electricity key at a shop and inserting it in a meter. These days you can buy almost everything online, from million dollar yachts to jars of finest Marmite, but my energy company still sends me down the road, rain or shine, to buy top-up credits on my meter cards.
You might imagine that my invention today will be a better energy payment system, but no, because that does exist already. Thankfully I will be switching to credit meters soon. However the random loss of power that occurs when running out of gas or electricity has inspired my invention today.
I hate setting digital clocks. All that holding down a button, wait for the numbers to flash, then forwards, backwards, missed it, backwards, forwards, what time is it again?
There’s a digital clock on the microwave, one in my daughter’s bedroom, another on the DVD player, and one by my bed. These all need to be reset when the electricity cuts out. So today’s invention is a device to reset all digital clocks in the house when you lose power.
Actually this invention is a bit of a cheat, as I know there are already clocks capable of keeping a time when they’re not plugged in – they have a back-up battery. So perhaps I need to invent the Anti-Cheap-Manufacturers-Who-Neglect-To-Put-A-Back-up-Battery-In-Digital-Devices Campaign? These manufacturers are saving us a few pennies per electrical item, but creating a world of woe whenever someone is confronted with a digital device flashing with the wrong time. This must be stopped.
Alternatively I could just buy some new digital clocks with a back-up battery.Anyone got an invention idea that uses two unwanted digital clocks, a DVD player and a microwave?
