In the past 85 years, not much has happened to the electrical outlet. At least, nothing groundbreaking except for perhaps a new form factor to give it a facelift (think decorator-style outlets). One thing that has changed is that more and more devices require power. I remember when a home was filled with blenders, vacuum cleaners and those gigantic televisions – and not much else as far as table-top appliances and devices went. But now we’ve got all manner of electronics and portable electronics. And that’s where FastMac’s U-Socket USB receptacle gets real practical. With iPhones, iPads, Kindles, and all the other gadgets we use, your wall outlet could start looking like it’s giving birth to a host of adapters and USB chargers. I don’t know about you, but it would be nice to have a cleaner and more organized way to charge your devices. Apparently not FastMac, who invented the “TruePower” U-Socket, agreed. The U-Socket marries the standard wall receptacle with a pair of 2.6A (2600mA) USB outlets.
The result is more than a little impressive.
You can order the U-Socket USB receptacle in White, Almond and Ivory – and you can also get it in both standard and decorator-style form factors. In that way, it will blend with just about any existing home. There is even a tamper resistant (TR) model that will conform to municipalities adhering to the 2008 NEC codes regarding the requirement of TR outlets in new and renovated homes (a build-to-order option at present).
The U-Socket itself looks like a standard wall outlet – and in fact, it is. The outlet portion of the U-Socket USB receptacle is a technology/product that is adapted to work with just about any receptacle, including those from four of the leading manufacturers (Leviton, Pass & Seymour, Cooper and Hubbell). The U-Socket “simply” applies some ingenuity in affixing a couple of USB ports to the side. The USB ports draw up to 2.6A (when connected) to charge higher current products like the new iPhones and iPads that are on the market. This is important, since a lower powered USB port would either charge these devices at a much slower rate, or even not work at all.
Installation and Use of the USB Receptacle
Since the FastMac U-Socket is, after all, more or less a standard receptacle, we installed it in much the same way. The only thing we needed to mind was the extra girth, provided by the twin USB ports. This brings us to our only real criticism: the U-Socket is a slick solution that adds USB to a standard receptacle (hence our calling it a USB receptacle). While it might be a tad more durable and compact if it were designed by one of the big four companies, they didn’t come up with the idea, FastMac did. As it stands now, the assembly a little fragile since the housing is designed to wrap around the side of the existing receptacle and house the added USB components. While a standard receptacle can be literally thrown across the room and not break, the U-Socket can’t handle that type of abuse. Of course, that’s easy for us to say – we didn’t go through the rather extensive research and development process. When we spoke with the inventor and engineer behind U-Socket, Abbie Vakil, we found out just how impressive and involved the development, and even more – the UL and NEC approval of the U-Socket USB receptacle was. While it’s nice to say that the U-Socket could be smaller and more compact, the truth is, there was a ton of work involved, and the way the device was invented means that the U-Socket can be placed on just about any 15A and 20A outlets, including TR and commercial-grade products.
Installing the U-Socket was very straightforward. There are two hot connections on the one side of the receptacle and a single unified neutral on the opposite. Ground is at the bottom where you’d expect it. You can still clip the hots to separate the outlets, but we’re actually not sure which outlet feeds the USB ports (we only had one sample and didn’t want to tear it apart). If you need to switch the outlet, FastMac makes a different product called the U2. Or, you can just use a standard receptacle and place this USB receptacle somewhere else.
Here’s a quote from Abbie that we found particularly enlightening:
By letting the outlet manufacturers make what they make best allowed us to concentrate on the DC portion & make that part as slim as possible whilst still outputting more than 2A on the USB ports AND staying within temperature limits. This is no minor feat let me assure you.
The U-Socket USB receptacle is a bit wider than a standard receptacle, but not prohibitively so. It still fit comfortably into a single-gang box, but it will be more difficult if you are retrofitting into an exterior block wall or an older home that uses the smaller metal enclosures. We were able to feed it from an existing GFCI in our kitchen. While a single-gang GFCI version of this receptacle would be welcome, it’s almost impossible (we’re told) due to the space requirements. The electronics to convert 110V AC to 5V DC simply refuse to fit into a single gang box. FastMac does make a double gang box GFCI versions , however. In a pinch, you can always daisy-chain it off an existing circuit makes a lot of sense and is fairly easy to do. In our particular case, this left only one location where we could use it, due to the way the wiring was run.
Conclusion
We’re not surprised by how convenient and impressive the FastMac TruePower U-Socket is – only that it wasn’t done earlier. We can envision future homes having these types of USB outlets everywhere – an indeed, it just makes lots of sense. FastMac has assured us that the U-Socket meets UL & NEC specifications, so it is officially approved and listed for use in residential construction. Now that I’ve actually installed and used the U-Socket, I can’t imagine an outlet that wouldn’t be better off without it (excepting perhaps something outdoors). If you don’t have one of these, pick one up – your electronics (and perhaps even your spouse) will thank you.
