By 1st December 2008, all external power supplies, such as those used by many alarm systems, household telephones and clock-radios for example, will need to meet the new MEPS requirements. External power supplies are generally known as AC adaptors or plugpacks.

All equipment manufactured by VCI from September 2008 meets the Australian and New Zealand requirements of the Minimum Energy Performance Standards designated in Performance mark III.

Government research has revealed that, in Australia over 2004, external power supplies wasted an estimated 845 gigawatt hours (GWh - a thousand million watt hours) of electricity. Consequently, this wastage produced an estimated 885,000 tonnes of CO2 equivalent greenhouse gases that year, representing almost half a percent of Australia’s total greenhouse gas emissions from electricity generation.

No power supply is 100 percent efficient, a small proportion of the energy used is lost as heat. The proportion lost depends on factors such as the power supply’s design, the power capacity, the quality and quantity of components used, and the operating conditions.

VCI took steps ahead of the mandatory application of the MEPS regulation to ensure the external power supplies used with its medical alarm products would comply.

Please Contact us with any enquiries.

In some cases Service Providers are now choosing not to repair faulty PSTN lines, or to install new PSTN lines in remote areas, when it is more economical to provide a connection over the Next-G mobile phone network.

To achieve this Service Providers use a “Fixed Wireless Terminal” (FWT) connected onto the telephone line in or near the clients residence. The FWT provides a “simulated exchange line” which, for all normal purposes looks like, and is billed like, a regular fixed telephone connection.

It is important to know that some Alarm equipment may not work correctly over this type of connection.

We at VCI have been working closely with Telstra to resolve this critical issue, and are pleased to announce that VCI equipment can now be supplied with a new data format which will allow correct data transmission over a both a standard exchange line and a Next G Fixed Wireless Terminal.

Naturally our new model, a totally new ground-up design which we are currently proto-typing, will have this enhanced connectivity and much, much more.