By Ashley Kelly
Ashley came up with the product for her final year project whilst studying Engineering and Product Design, gaining a First Degree in 2008.
The AllSocket accommodates the growing trend to fill modern homes with a number of gadgets and appliances without unsightly adaptors and extension cables or the expense of chasing in additional plug points. AllPlugs are environmentally friendly, with options that allow users to turn the power off to one or several appliances at a time, by either a flick of one conveniently placed wireless wall switch, or automatically by smart plugs which detect standby states.
The product is now being developed further as part of LSBU’s Enterprise Associate Scheme; a course that supports those with entrepreneurial abilities. Once completed, students receive a formal academic qualification - an MSc in Enterprise by Learning Contract. AllSocket is now being developed commercially and forms the basic concept for Ashley's MSc.
Ashley explains how she was inspired to create her innovation.
I grew frustrated that the placement of my furniture and electrical equipment was always restricted by the access to and lack of electrical wall sockets.
I live in a Victorian home where the problem is really bad, but even new homes suffer as technology increasingly becomes more and more part of our everyday lives. There are never enough sockets, and the bird's nest of extension cables and multi-adaptors is untidy, unsafe, and ugly. I tend to try and hide them, yet that creates more frustration in my attempts to be 'green' as I need access to switch them off and/or unplug them. Existing sockets have not changed in 70 or so years but our use of them has changed dramatically and I believe the distribution system is in need of a dramatic overhaul, which is what I have set out to do with the AllSocket System.
