An evaluation of the zero-watt standby system employing light and RF energy

Recently, the zero-watt standby system is invented to diminish the power consumption in standby mode of an appliance. In this system, a strong energy of sound, light, or radio frequency (RF) is emitted from the remote control unit to wake up the appliances from a completely shut down state. Initially, we developed the system operate utilizing LED as the energy transmitter and solar cells as the energy receiver. The system performs well where the power consumption in standby mode reduces to zero watt. Subsequently, we modified the system by employing the RF energy. In this paper, we evaluate the zero-watt standby system utilizing light and RF energy source that we have developed. The evaluation criteria are the system characteristics, the system performance, and the implementation tendency. Basically, the light energy can be simply fabricated, while the RF energy source can broaden the controlling location. The users preference is typically focused on the control range, invisibility, and cost. These evaluation results can help users or manufacturers to adopt the appropriate system for their appliances and applications.