My laptop’s been comatose all week, thankfully due to a kaboomed power supply rather than any fault with the mainboard. While it took less than 24 hours for a replacement to arrive (thank you Layer One) it raised a question: what exactly do you do with a dead power supply?
Like most electronic gear, you can’t just throw it in a bin; it’ll still be a discrete article in the landfill 10,000 years hence. But I’ve no idea what to actually do with it that’ll be useful, as opposed to merely make me feel a sense of smug self-satisfaction. (If you look at what energy actually gets saved by so-called conservationists you’ll get a shock. Per person, cars emit less pollutants than trains, driving to the bottle bank generally negates any effect of recycling the glass, and taking this power supply to the Council dump or whatever will entail a detour involving cars AND trains.)
Any ideas gratefully received. In the meantime, anyone want a dead PSU?
Have a grok through MAKEzine, you'll be surprised the DIY projects that can be found.