省エネ大賞受賞技術開発の軌跡 (44) Trajectory of Energy Conservation Grand Prize-winning Technology Development (44)
第2章 誰でもできる発見や発明
Chapter 2 Discoveries and Inventions That Anyone Can Make
２．２ 常識よ、サヨナラ
節電虫には２つの非常識が存在します。
その一つは待機中、すなわち電話やファックスが入ってくることを監視している最中でさえもいっさい節電虫自体は電力を消費しないことです。節電虫は見張りという仕事をしているにもかかわらず電気を消費しないのです。そして、監視中は節電虫が電話やファックス機器の電源をオフし機器の電力消費をゼロにします。従って節電虫と機器の電力待機量の総和はゼロになるのです。
電気エネルギーを使用せずに監視する、仕事をすることができるというのは常識ではありません。この点に関しては省エネ大賞の２次ヒヤリングの時に一色東大名誉教授（当時）からご質問を受けました。
さらに、もう一つの非常識は待機（中）消費電力を一気にゼロにしてしまうことです。待機（中）消費電力量を何段階かに分けて改善して旧製品よりも魅力的なものにすれば消費者の購買意欲は何回もそそられます。それが買い替え需要を喚起し販売量を増加させます。これは営業手段としては当然です。この考え方や方法は他の多くの商品に適用されてきた常識的な営業手法です。ですから節電虫のように一気に無駄をゼロにすること、一気にベストな状態に持ってゆくことは一般的には非常識です。
続く
The critique article by then Professor Emeritus Isshiki of the University of Tokyo, the chairman of the judging committee for the "Energy Conservation Vanguard 21 Award"
2.2 Goodbye to common sense
There are two uncommon ideas in Setsuden-mushi (a profit-making device by saving stand-by electricity).
One of them is that Setsuden-mushi itself does not consume any power during standby, i.e. even while monitoring incoming calls and/or fax messages. Setsuden-mushi does not consume electricity despite doing the job of monitoring. And during monitoring, Setsuden-mushi turns off the power of the telephone and/or the fax machine to reduce the power consumption of the machine to zero. Accordingly, the sum of the power consumption of Setsuden-mushi and the device becomes zero.
It is not common sense to be able to monitor or work without using any electrical energy. In this regard, at the time of the second hearing of the Energy Conservation Award, I received a question from Mr. Isshiki, a professor emeritus (then) of the University of Tokyo.
Furthermore, another uncommon point of Setsuden-mushi is to reduce standby electricity consumption to zero at once. If the standby electricity consumption amount to be saved is divided into several stages and improved at each stage to make the telephone and/or facsimile machines more attractive than the old products, consumers will be motivated to purchase them many times. It stimulates replacement demand and increases sales volume. This is natural as a sales tactics. This way of thinking and method is a commonsense sales method that has been applied to many other products. Therefore, it is generally uncommon to reduce waste to zero at once as Setsuden-mushi does.
To be continued
The article introducing Setsuden-mushi
The cover of the May 1997 issue of "Energy Conservation" magazine