Does anyone have any of these?

[PrincessArky]

I am just wondering if they really save you any money and how well they really work.

http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000P1QJXQ/sr=8-1/qid=1199723715/ref=pd_cp_hi_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1199723715&sr=8-1&pf_rd_p=277661601&pf_rd_s=center-41&pf_rd_t=201&pf_rd_i=B0006Q3B2W&pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_r=1GDGJ2VKZ1M23PS8SS19


Energy Saving Smart Strip With Autoswitching Technology #SCG3

[SLance68]

No but you could just unplug your computer when you turn it off. It would also prevent any surges if it was unplugged.

[diana_circe]

My hubby and I were reading that our tv uses the equivalent of three 100 watt lightbulbs of electricity an hour while its turned OFF! We now unplug it. Every electrical item you have still pulls power while its in off mode, I don't see how a power strip would prevent that when it would be pulling electricity of its own, maybe just less than whatever items were plugged into it.

[janelle]

We have a surge protector on our computer in case an electric storm comes up and maybe lightning strikes close. My BIL keeps his computer on all the time but I don't think that is safe. Even having it plugged in will cause a problem with lightening in the area. These should help with that problem.

[Mini]

We leave our computers on all the time well except when we are gone for a few days then we turn them off OR if its fixing to storm we turn them off. It hurts your computer to turn it off an on off an on all the time if you do it alot. I realize when its on its using power but its just a habit I guess. But you should unplug everything when its not used not just turn off, even phone chargers pull power plugged up.

Anyways Sorry princess dont know anything about that particular product.

[PrincessArky]

yep saw on Oprah that even when you stuff is not on just having it plugged in takes 40% normal electric power as when it is on. I do not want to have to unplug everything when I am not using it too lazy I guess lol I also want them for 2 computer set ups and all our tvs. No way would I ever remember to go and unplug everything lol

[dv8grl]

Anything you plug into a wall sucks up electricity, even when its not in use.. its in "sleep mode".

When I lived by myself, I 2 power strips, one for the computer & all its speakers, printer, etc & one for all my tv, dvd, cable box, etc.... Its just easier than unplugging everything, I'd just unplug the power strip when I left for work each day. Back then, I'd turn the hot water heater off when I was at work as well. My power bills were NEVER over $20...

Its harder to do when you live with others., DH hates it when I turn the computer monitor off, let alone the computer!

[PrincessArky]

Anything you plug into a wall sucks up electricity, even when its not in use.. its in "sleep mode".

When I lived by myself, I 2 power strips, one for the computer & all its speakers, printer, etc & one for all my tv, dvd, cable box, etc.... Its just easier than unplugging everything, I'd just unplug the power strip when I left for work each day. Back then, I'd turn the hot water heater off when I was at work as well. My power bills were NEVER over $20...

Its harder to do when you live with others., DH hates it when I turn the computer monitor off, let alone the computer!

wow now thats an electric bill I would be proud to have but with a family of 6 of us I dont see that happening lol but we are all working really hard to lower it by doing some little things and maybe I can put the older kids in charge of different things to unplug when we leave the house

[ahippiechic]

We have 5 PCs and they're never off, especially the server. They and the TV's are on surge protectors.

[PrincessArky]

We have 5 PCs and they're never off, especially the server. They and the TV's are on surge protectors.

I have some of those at the moment they just protect what is hooked up right they dont like power down or do they??? I just get so confused when it comes to anything like this lol

[PrincessArky]

well I got one of the smart strips for the entertainment center mainly because I don't wanna go back there and unplug all the time lol cant wait to see if it lowers our electric bill. We got this one just right before the last bill came out so we shall see if there is a difference :)

[ahippiechic]

Our surge protectors are Interex and it isn't a strip, it's about 12x14x2 and I have my monitor sitting on top of one of them. It has 9 outlets on the back we have 3 of them and everthing is plugged into them all towers, monitors, printers, switches etc.

We also have a battery back that we use for the server and my PC. With both on them on it and running a normal load, it usually last for about 4 hours. About 6 if I shut mine down. Right before the back up power runs out, it saves everything and shuts the PC down.

[PrincessArky]

got our first electric bill since using it a whole month, have it connected to the big screen tv, direct tv box, stereo, dvd player, and the surround sound thing..........saved $25 a month. I am very happy with my purchase and might just get more since I am too lazy to crawl behind things to unplug them when leaving the room

[ElleGee]

My pc is on all the time.. The other 4 are turned off at night.

our house is really old and we have had to replace a lot of the electrical already..

I really would love to get a solar panel for our sunroom to run the lizard tanks.. But first we have to make a patio out side our room over the sun room..


I am way off topic now and thinking about it makes my head hurt

Thanks a lot Op... no really thanks *grumble*



( j/k :) )

[buglebe]

got our first electric bill since using it a whole month, have it connected to the big screen tv, direct tv box, stereo, dvd player, and the surround sound thing..........saved $25 a month. I am very happy with my purchase and might just get more since I am too lazy to crawl behind things to unplug them when leaving the room

WOW! that much!! I think I will invest in some of those power strips myself.
I have to agree trying to get behind the tv would be hard. When you unplug everything, does the remote have to be reprogrammed? For some reason I was thinking ours does. I also know that the last printer I had worked fine until I turned it off. My daughter said she had one that said not to turn it off, and when she did the ink dried up. Anyone ever heard of that?

[PrincessArky]

WOW! that much!! I think I will invest in some of those power strips myself.
I have to agree trying to get behind the tv would be hard. When you unplug everything, does the remote have to be reprogrammed? For some reason I was thinking ours does. I also know that the last printer I had worked fine until I turned it off. My daughter said she had one that said not to turn it off, and when she did the ink dried up. Anyone ever heard of that?

I dont know about the remote I do know that our direct tv thing resets itself but all I have to do is click 2 buttons to get back to my normal settings well worth it since it saved $25 this month lol never heard of ink drying up or anything in a printer. Maybe she didn't use it much?

[PrincessArky]

well according to hubby we actually cut our bill by about $50 this month a little extra work goes a long way and now I even have a smart strip for the pc. I normally don't turn it off BUT with everything going up constantly I just can't afford to leave it on at night anymore

[atprm]

This is an article from 2002 -- but I would imagine the information has not changed, and probably only gotten worse in the last 6 years.


http://www.news.cornell.edu/releases/Sept02/vampire.appliances.ssl.html

Partial article here --


Electrical appliances slurp up energy even when switched off in order to support features such as timers, clocks, memory and remote "on" and "off" switches, says Pierce. "Satellite receivers for televisions and VCRs, among other appliances, use almost as much electricity when they are switched off as when they are on," he points out.

Satellite TV systems and some DVD players, for example, each cost about $9 a year for standby power; an energy-thirsty TV can cost more than $10 a year. The vampire appliance bill becomes significant when audio systems, garage-door openers, clock radios, phone/answering machines, microwave ovens and standard ovens are included.

The standby power of a computer monitor, however, only costs about $3 a year when the computer is shut down nights and weekends. However, if the computer's "sleep" function is used, the power costs $41 a year for those nights and weekends -- almost as much as the $57 a year it costs to run the computer just on weekdays.


What can consumers do? Pierce offers several actions:

o If timers and other features aren't being used, consumers can turn off their most wasteful appliances by plugging them into fuse-protected power strips (also known as surge protectors) that, when turned off, can disrupt the flow of electricity when the appliances aren't being used.

o Consumers can encourage their U.S. representatives to support legislation that would require labeling of appliances with their standby energy requirements.

o When choosing a new appliance, consumers can research if it uses less than 1 watt of standby power by accessing web sites such as http://standby.lbl.gov/data/1wproducts.html at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab.


here is more on the subject:

http://michaelbluejay.com/electricity/transformers.html


The clock on the microwave uses more energy than the oven

The first time I heard that statement I thought,"Great, another electrical myth, like the myth that you should leave lights on because they take a lot of electricity to start up.". After all, I knew that the oven uses about 1000 watts while the clock uses five.

But then I thought, wait a minute, the clock is running 24/7, while the oven is running just a few minutes a day. Then I did the math:

How much energy the clock uses in a day: 5 (watts) x 24 (hours) = 120 (watt-hours)

How long it takes the microwave to the same amount of energy:
120 watt-hours / 1000 watts = 0.12 hours, or 7.2 minutes

This means that if you use a typical microwave oven for less than 7.2 minutes/day, the clock uses more electricity than the oven. Wow.

[PrincessArky]

[QUOTE=atprm;95869436]This is an article from 2002 -- but I would imagine the information has not changed, and probably only gotten worse in the last 6 years.


thats it now I have to unplug my microwave cause I hardly ever use the thing and the clock is always set WRONG anyway

[atprm]

wait, like I thought... it got worse...

http://gizmodo.com/337614/your-tv-sucks-power-even-when-its-not-running


this is about the LCD and Plasma televisions!!


50" Plasma TVs
(Manufacturer / Model / Standby / On / Mode)
Panasonic TH-50PX75U 0.2W 499W 720p
Panasonic TH-50PZ700U 0.2W 695W 1080p
Panasonic TH-50PX77U 0.2W 499W 720p
Panasonic TH-50PZ750U 0.2W 705W 1080p
Hewlett-Packard PL5072N 0.4W 460W 720p
Philips 50PDFP5332D/37 0.67W 480W 720p
LG 50PC5DC 0.74W 418W —
Sanyo DP50747 0.85W 460W 720p
LG 50PB4DA 1W 420W —

37" LCD TVs
Hewlett-Packard LT3700 0.3W 220W

Hewlett-Packard LC3772N 0.3W 220W

LG LB5DF-UC 0.3W 170W

LG 37 LB4DS-UA 0.4W 165W

LG 37 LC7D-UB 0.5W 177W

Philips 37PFL5332D/37 0.75W 190W

Philips 37PFL7332D/37 0.75W 200W

Sharp LC37GP1U 0.9W 165W

Samsung LN-T3732H 0.9W 180W

Sharp LC37D62U 0.9W 198W

Sharp LCC3742U 0.95W 185W

Sharp LC37D43U 0.95W 185W

Sharp LC37D42U 0.95W 185W

[atprm]

and an article from December 2006 on CNN.


:(

Now I am gonna go around the house and unplug everything. wow!!





By Gary Nurenberg
CNN
Adjust font size:
Decrease fontDecrease font
Enlarge fontEnlarge font

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The holiday run on big electronics purchases may have consumers thinking about Halloween instead of Christmas. Think vampires.

"All devices have the potential to be vampire devices in the sense that its really the characteristic of sucking extra electricity while they're in standby mode," says Assistant U.S. Energy Secretary Alexander Karsner.

Many appliances need power to keep their electronic key pads ready to go, even when they look completely off.

Alan Meier of the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory has been studying vampire electronics for years.

"Each home now has anywhere from 10 to 50 of these products, so that adds up and represents as much as a month of your electricity bill," he says.

We plugged a DVD player that wasn't even playing a DVD into a watt meter, and it showed consumption of 11.32 watts with the power on.

"I've turned it off, and now its drawing six watts," Meier says.

Because with the demand for "instant on," off doesn't really mean off. Even Meier can be surprised

"These electric toothbrushes don't consume much power," he says. But plug in that watt meter, and ...

"Ooops, well, I was wrong," Meier says. "This electric toothbrush draws about 1.8 watts constantly ... so its about $2 a year in energy consumption."

Meier's home computer is just standing by. But it's drawing 65 watts.

You know those two little dots on your microwave? "Those two dots are responsible for three watts," Meier says.

President Bush ordered the federal government to buy products that use no more than one watt in standby.

"We expect our agencies to be ridding themselves of these vampires," Bush said in 2001.

California outlaws the sale of devices that use more than 3 watts.

But nationally, says Katherine Kennedy of the Natural Resources Defense Council, "The federal government isn't setting standards for those yet and we're going to need some new laws to make that happen."

Manufacturers argue that would increase the products' cost.

Energy experts recommend simply unplugging appliances, or using the 21st century equivalent of garlic or a wooden stake: a powerstrip that can turn several vampires off at the same time. It can take a substantial bite out of your electric bill.

[PrincessArky]

wait, like I thought... it got worse...

http://gizmodo.com/337614/your-tv-sucks-power-even-when-its-not-running


this is about the LCD and Plasma televisions!!

HOLY cow might explain why my bill went down lol we dont have plasma but its big (think it might even be rear projection or some crap like that) but sure it sux the juice just as fast

[hotwheelstx]

Yes, we have several in our home. Computer is always plugged in.

[atprm]

Computer useage? check out this informative article!!

HOLY CHITSKI!

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/14/technology/14basics.html

[DrGrin]

Interesting articles. I'm going to start unplugging everything and see if it helps.

[PrincessArky]

Computer useage? check out this informative article!!

HOLY CHITSKI!

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/06/14/technology/14basics.html

OMG