A technology that provides electricity wirelessly to household products such as electronic kettle, mixers and others is developed. A generation of wireless household appliances without a need for power cords is approaching.
According to industries on the 18th, LG Electronics developed a technology that can send and receive electricity of 2.4 kW wirelessly. 2.4 kW is an amount that can operate all of household products within a house. Recently LG Electronics demonstrated products that use this technology at a technology conference.
Until now all of household products are used by plugging power cords into outlets. However using LG Electronics’ wireless electricity technology, there is no need to plug in products into outlets. By only connecting a transmitter, which is equipment that sends electricity, into an outlet, one can charge a household product by putting it on top of a transmitter.
Although a transmitter, which sends electricity, needs a power cord to be connected to an outlet, one can hide an outlet and a power cord if a transmitter is built inside of a table, sink, or an inductor.
LG Electronics’ technology differentiates itself from others from a fact that it sends high electricity wirelessly. Usually power to operate a TV requires 200 W (0.2 kW). However 2.4 kW is amount of power that is 10 times higher than an amount to turn on a TV and it can operate all of electronics in a house.
Wireless electricity charging technology that is currently commercialized provides 15 W, which is about same speed as a wired charger, and it is only good for fully charging a Smartphone. By using LG Electronics’ technology, a generation of wireless household appliances can be pushed forward.
LG Electronics has been researching wireless electricity technology since 2009. It first developed a technology with low power that is suitable to charge a Smartphone and others and it eventually developed a technology that can send high output, which can support normal household products. An employee from LG Electronics said that it is currently pushing to standardize this technology by developing it.
LG Electronics is planning to apply this technology as the standard for WPC (Wireless Power Consortium), which is an international wireless electricity standardization group with 220 companies in the world. It is however competing against Phillips regarding this technology. Because it can be guaranteed of compatibility between products and expect loyalty for using this technology, competition is very fierce. It is going to decide on standardization in first half of 2016.
After standardizing it, LG Electronics is planning to graft 2.4 kW wireless electricity technology into actual household products such as inductors and others. Instead of TVs and refrigerators that are fixed on a certain spot, it is focusing on kitchen electronics that can be easily moved around.
Staff Reporter Yun, Kunil | benyun@etnews.com