One of the key points Professor Tim Flannery made to us last week during our interview is that one of the simplest things you can do to both save energy and money is switching off gadgets at the powerpoint. But in true geek style, there are gadgets that actually do that for you – do you use them?
The most striking example that comes to mind is Belkin’s lineup of Conserve power products. They have power boards designed to either let you remotely kill power to the majority of devices on the board, or alternatively have multiple ports follow a master connection, so that when that master device is switched off, power is cut to all other devices.
Both are incredible intelligent and simple ideas that make saving energy so much easier. But do you guys use them? I’ve been using the Belkin remote controlled powerboard in my home theatre setup since it launched – My TiVo is running through the always on port, but everything else gets switched off remotely at the end of the night, stopping any power draw on my system.
I have no idea how much money that’s saved me over the past couple of years, but I’m sure it has.
But the question is whether you guys use them? Considering that they will probably save you money in the long run, are you prepared to spend a bit of extra cash up front for an intelligent power saving device? Or is it so far down your priority list you don’t actually care? Let us know in comments.
Adrian Cascun-Valencic
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 at 5:22 PMNo, because I’m happy to pay for the power for the miniscule amount my gadgets draw when in “standby” mode for the convenience of *not* having to switch ‘em all back on again. Switching them all off at the power point every day for a week saves less power than boiling a jug of water while leaving the kitchen lights on for an hour. I’ll switch to vodka, lime and soda in the dark – tree huggers jelly? :–P
Kevin Hingston
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 at 5:46 PMI’ve gotten some remote control powerpoints. A bit big and bulky (about the size of a holiday timer) but they make it much easier to avoid leaving things on standby…plus space age lighting!
matt
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 at 5:49 PMyeah, I use one of those remote controlled power boards for my home theatre.
I have set up my file server to be as green as possible… without replacing it… I really think I should replace it with an atom mini ITX setup.
I don’t know how wake on lan works… but I should probably set it to be able to do that too, and turn off at night if its still on and not downloading…
should greenafy my network infrastructure too, as that is on 24/7
Abraha,m
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 at 6:12 PMMeh, i just switch off from the power point. I brought a power adapter that has switchers on them so when i need to use them like the printer, i just turn it on from the switch. Then at night, i turn off the entire power adapter from the power point.
And yes ive definitely noticed a slight power drop in my bills.
Its manual labour:) But its best cost effective way.
Old Codger
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 at 6:36 PMI already have an expensive surge protector, so was never on the table. I looked into how money they will save, and it’s pocket change according to CNET. Most modern devices have pretty efficient low power states, but older ones would be higher.
A couple of years ago Energy Australia was doing trial of an energy monitor, LCD display would show current (no pun intended) and historical power use. We tested this in our office, where we have about 8 computers, a server, big printer etc. We tested power use with all this stuff on and running (but not in use) and then turned everything off at the powerpoint, including lights and it barely registered a difference. But if we used the electric kettle or toaster the increase was huge.
There must be some good independent data for this somewhere. I’m not convinced the saving of this trickle power is terribly significant. Not when you consider that making a cup of tea likely uses more energy than all of your stuff on standby for a month.
Don’t even get me started on earth hour, let’s save C02 by turning off all the lights for an hour… and burn a million paraffin candles instead.
Stephen Earp
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 at 7:40 PMThis is one tech area where my parents are beating me! They’ve got the remote switch board, but I personally wouldn’t mind the master power switch one, because my media set up pretty much centres on the PC. I might be looking into this kind of tech in the future sometime..
Damo
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 at 7:51 PMYes, I use a powerboard supplied by Brisbane City Council which kills peripherals when my computer is turned off. It’s good but can be annoying sometimes because I want some peripherals left on occasionally and don’t want to crawl under the desk to rework the cabling.
Joe
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 at 8:08 PMTim Flannery again? Ah, i already told you that guy is a certifiable nut bar. Watch the video again to remind yourself
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SeNDSeknn_c
Alexander Bont
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 at 8:19 PMI have my rechargable batteries, vacuum cleaner, electric edger and drill batteries all hooked up to a simple timer that charges them all during offpeak. With my home electricity bill topping $650 per 1/4, I had to start doing something.
Sylphier
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 at 8:31 PMThe capital investment of these products is extremely high. No doubt they can save money on the long run, but it is extremely difficult for the average consumer to know exactly how long it’ll take for the device to pay itself off.
Plus, knowing that as technology advances the price of these products will go down, how do you convince an average consumer to buy it now as opposed to a few years down the track? If buying it now takes 5 years to repay itself, is it possible that the cost of waiting a few years then buying it will save you more?
All these uncertainties will make even the gadget lovers think twice, let alone the average consumer.
That said, the more people buying the product now, the greater the confidence the companies have in developing more products, as well as having more funds for research.
Sicarius123
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 at 8:46 PMI thought only the british were pedantic about turning everything off every night because they used to be afraid it would all catch on fire or something.
ErraticFocus
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 at 9:16 PMthe savings over time is only going to be getting better with electricity price rises. however the up front cost over a simple 4 way cheapy from the local $2 shop can be a bit much to bite on more than the main board or two in the home.
i don’t have one, but plan on one as a replacement for the pc and home theater some time soon (i maxed out the 6 sockets), but getting one for the toaster/kettle/coffee machine? don’t think i’m up for that. i’ll stick with manual swithching.
every time i’m out of the house for a weekend everthing gets turned off though. it’s just habit for me now and i think the habit is good to have, if i was lazy it would be a different story!
Sam Cook
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 at 9:21 PMI really despise a lot of so called “green products” that are marketed towards being global warming saviours.
Firstly, for the amount that is charged for many of these devices (and Belkins Conserve range is no exception) the price of the product is exorbitant when compared to the commodity version of the same product (everyone can pick up a power strip for less than $10 from Bunnings). Sure, smart power products such as these WILL reduce your power usage, but the drain is generally minimal, and the time it will take to recoup the initial outlay on your green purchase is usually unrealistic.
As an example, Nokia quotes their chargers having an annual average drain of 2.527kWh (source: http://goo.gl/ORwbO). Taking EnergyAustralia’s peak energy tariff of 19.09c/kWh, this would mean an average price of 48.24c annually to charge a phone. Kind of makes it hard to justify the ~$50 price tag on the Belkin Conserve Valet when it will take about 100 years to recoup the initial cost.
I’m honestly not sure of the drain of an average home entertainment centre in standby, but I would be surprised if the above formula didn’t hold true in this circumstance too.
Secondly on an environmental front, the product needs to be produced, and old product disposed. While I can’t quote figures and sources, it’s widely accepted that the emissions saved in upgrading an existing product to a new more efficient one, rarely outweigh the emissions created in manufacturing your new unit, and disposing/recycling your previous one. “World saving” cars such as the Prius have been criticised for the same reason.
By all means, Belkin’s Conserve line does no doubt have a place in the market and legitimate uses, but I honestly do not believe that reducing energy costs and emissions are amongst them.
LucasF
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 at 9:31 PMI am really interested in this sort of tech and I think they could go a lot further with it. With the plethora of devices available today it just seems logical we should have some control over power distribution. A good example I am not a surround sound person but I have a ridiculous stereo PA system in my lounge room and there are a lot of components that need to bed switched on or off. Right now I walk to the wall and switch a 6 point powerboard on or off. Wish I had a remote controlled power board!!
Andreas Weiß
Tuesday, April 12, 2011 at 10:20 PMLike the article :-). In my opinion a very important topic.
I use a remote controlled plug between the wall socket and my power board to turn off all devices – easy and cheap (was around $29 and the box contained three plugs … ). The Belkin device in the article is clever … but a little expensive …
I also installed a little energy meter (Current Cost … $95) to measure the energy consumption of my house and find the energy wasters. I identified my microwave (35W), my 3 aircons (70W !!! ) and my old alarm clock (35W) as devices with high standby usage (around $227 per year!).
So yes … I love to save energy (and spend money on energy saving devices) as long as it pays back … and usually it does.
trevor
Saturday, May 7, 2011 at 6:17 PMHi Andreas, where did you get those remote blocks. In Australia? or from
Evan Hart
Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 9:02 AMThe amount of power saved by switching devices off at the powerpoint is very small for the individual but when many people do it, it begins to add up to many tonnes of carbon not released in to the atmoshpere. This is the point of the argument. Its not about saving you money, it is about alll of us contributing to the saving the planet.
Travis Young
Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 9:38 AMMy electricity supplier (origin) sent me out a freebie pack with one of those remote controlled power boards. Awesome public relations move, and has made a noticeable dent in my power bill.
It’s trained to use the remote of your choice, TV makes sense, and just holding down the power button on the remote turns the entire system off/on.
Now I use energy saving globes too, but my power bill has been pretty consistent for some time ow, so I’m confident in saying that I’ve achieved a 5 to 10% drop in my bill since installing that one ‘gadget’. That’s pretty damn impressive.
MarioC
Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 3:27 PMI personall am all for power saving and all, but ive tried to find how much you actually save, by the sounds of it not much and how long would a device take to pay itself back?
ed
Wednesday, April 13, 2011 at 6:28 PMI got one for free from Brisbane City Council and that price is great (i.e. I don’t know what the ROI on buying one would be).
The TV is the master and when turned off also turns off power to the Wii and AV amp and DVD player. But power to the Wii and wireless headphone battery charger is independent and always left on.
All up it works well.
fred
Friday, April 15, 2011 at 2:03 PMNever mind the initial purchase cost taking half a lifetime to repay, what is the environmental cost of the additional complexity?
I’m all for buying the most efficient device if you’re replacing something anyway, but to make a specific purchase like this is often counter-productive.
Learn to use the off switch.
Evan
Friday, April 15, 2011 at 3:30 PMI got a similar powerboard for my AV setup at home, but the reasons were more prosaic. My sub-woofer has a supposed power-saving feature that when you switch the power switch to “auto” it will turn itself on when it detects a sound signal, and off otherwise.
I found it kept switching on and off while I’m watching something, especially during quiet bits, which was distracting and irritating. So I got one of those power boards and slaved everything off my amplifier, with the sub switched to “always on”.
It’s actually been really nice that at the end of the night, I just have to turn the one thing off and everything else switches off too. Saves scrabbling around for several different remotes all the time.
david
Sunday, April 17, 2011 at 4:10 PMfor all the mac users that don’t know about it already, here is a free little utility that enables you to leave your monitor and computer at the maximum energy saving setting as a default, but over-ride this easily when you are actually making use of the computer so you don’t have the screen or whatever blanking out too much.
http://www.lightheadsw.com/caffeine/
Caffeine is a tiny program that puts an icon in the right side of your menu bar. Click it to prevent your Mac from automatically going to sleep, dimming the screen or starting screen savers. Click it again to go back. Right-click (or ⌘-click) the icon to show the menu.
Michael
Tuesday, June 7, 2011 at 11:05 AMI have an energy meter which indicates that I’m using about six or seven cents an hour to power all the stand-bys.
It doesn’t sound a lot, but that works out to about $1.50 for 24 hours or over $500 a year.
There’s a lot of room there to buy gadgets to reduce that wasted money and wasted energy.