Patent 7800252 was granted and assigned to Igo, Inc on September, 2010 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
In accordance with various aspects of the present invention, a method and circuit for reducing power consumption of a wall plate system during idle conditions is provided. In an exemplary embodiment, a wall plate system is configured for reducing power during idle mode by disengaging at least one outlet from a power input. A wall plate system may include one or more outlets and one or more wall plate circuits, with power input connected to the outlets through the wall plate circuit(s). The wall plate circuit may include a current measuring system, a control circuit, and a switch. The current measuring system provides, through the switch, an output power signal that is proportional to the load at the outlet. If behavior of the current measuring system indicates that an outlet is drawing substantially no power from the power input, the switch disengages the power input from the outlet.