Energy Saving Vending Machines in Japan

With the recent disasters in Japan and shortage of electricity, comes a new era of vending machines that are both eco-friendly as well as energy saving. We have seen countless fascinating innovations in many sectors of Japan involving the recent trend in “setsuden” (energy saving) and “teiden taisaku” (blackout countermeasures). As we also know, vending machines are a significant part of Japanese culture, located on the corner of every street, entrance of a building, and even rows of them side by side. However, these convenient, but not-so-efficient ubiquitous machines, devour an astonishing amount of electricity for their size. Numerous measures have been taken up by JVMA (Japan Vending Machine Manufacturers Association) to reduce the use of electrical energy such as Zone Cooling (in which the machines only cool/heat the next few cans that are ready to be sold), a sensor which enables it to turn off its lighting system during the day and when there are nearby lights, and a “Vacuum Insulation” system where materials such as glass wool and metallic films are used to prevent heat and cold loss.