Plugging your iPod into the wall to charge is so last year. These days all the cool kids are using Hydrogen fuel cells to keep their beats pumping or their cell phones texting. Where do you get the hydrogen to power your gadgets you ask? Simple, it’s already around us, you may know it better as water! Horizon Fuel Cell Technologies has developed a desktop system for extracting the hydrogen from water to store it in the cell for later use when you need it.

See that small fuel cell, there’s a ton of power stored in there, equivalent to 10 AA batteries. There is quite a bit of technology packed into each tiny cell. It has a metal alloy matrix inside which allows the hydrogen to be stored in a solid state.

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At CES I think the motto is go big or go home. LG, Samsung and Sony really took that to heart when they designed their booth design. I was wondering why there was a shortage of big screen TVs about 6 months ago, now I know what happened, all available screens were stuck on the walls at CES. I think LG won the battle. Have a look at the closeup of the Sony 3D video wall, it is obviously made up of many blocks but I was surprised to see how uneven many of the sections were. When you are back at a normal viewing distance these are not visible but when up close it was very noticeable.

There is so much stuff here at CES that doesn’t fit into what I am looking to cover but here is some of the electronic porn that I just had to have a second glance at. Check out the massive subs, amps and the DVD duplicators that are so tall it would knock you out it it fell on you. The 4th tower beside the duplicators is a USB thumb drive duplicator.

If you have a gas hot water tank you might be agonizing over the large heating bills for your hot water. Gas prices are going up and when using gas lots of your heat ends up the chimney. So you are convinced that going electric is a good idea. Only problem is that purchasing a new electric tank would negate your energy savings. That is where this DIY Gas Hot Water Tank to Electric Conversion hack comes in. With a bit of work and an old stove heated element you could easily convert your gas hot water tank to run on electricity. To get even more savings a simple timer is all that you need to only produce hot water when you need it.

Thanks for the tip Matt.

“My inefficient natural gas hot water tank to an ultra efficient electric tank on a timer, decreasing my energy consumption for water heating by about 80% and saving us about $175 per year. Shape the heating element to fit inside the tube through the water tank. I used a couple pipes as forms to bend the heating element into a “coil inside a coil” shape so that the two ends of the element were on the same end of the coil. “

CES has a bit of everything. After you are done looking at the glow in the dark iPhone cases you can check out the E Rex. Mike Worry, the CEO of Nuvation Engineering gives us an overview of the car. It’s an electric sports car which has been built using a Campagna Motors T Rex as the donor vehicle. Of course the T Rex is gasoline powered so converting it to electric isn’t a feat for the faint of heart.  The E Rex was built for the Progressive Automotive X Prize which is a competition that sparks innovation. The 800 pounds of batteries and huge electric motor gets this thing from 0 to 60 in 5 seconds! They couldn’t find an off the shelf battery management system so they built their own. The custom battery management system uses a Maxim 11068 chip which is a 12 channel battery monitoring system, you can see some pictures of the controller below.

When I think of Panasonic I think of phones, stereo systems and other house hold electronics. At CES they has an entire area showcasing their green technology. This Electric Concept Car is by far the most interesting out of all the technology they were showcasing. I love the simplicity of the electric vehicles, I am thinking that as soon as they are adopted mechanics will have the same fate as the typewriter repair men. The demo unit is great since all the guts out in the open so that it is easy to see what makes it tick.

The Bodymedia is an interesting small device that keeps track of your activities and helps you get fit easier and quicker using technology. The small device connects using Bluetooth so the device is sure to be compatible with all current and future mobile devices. The device might even find other uses since I am sure the data would be simple to extract and use for any purpose desired.

“Using our FREE app, log food on your iPhone® or Android™ smartphone* and see your most recent Activity Manager info. Plus with the new Armband BW — using Bluetooth® wireless technology — get real-time info on calorie burn & workout data.

You burn calories differently than anyone else, which is why cookie-cutter weight loss programs may not be working for you. BodyMedia FIT weight management system collects 9,000 data points a minute to capture your individual metabolic profile. This personalized info helps you pinpoint what actions you need to take to reach your weight loss goals.”