Posted on April 3rd, 09 by dailysavingsfromallyou
Slash your electric bill!
Like me, you’ve probably heard it many times — when you leave any device plugged in (even when it’s turned off), it’s still using electricity. Which means your electric bill is a lot higher because of the appliances you have plugged in all over your house.
I for one am not successful— nor, to be honest, do I want to be—at unplugging the TV, computer and its peripherals, lamps, baby monitor, stereo, cell phone charger, etc. Who has time to unplug/re-plug them all each day? Not me, so I’ve been looking around for a product that does the work for me—something that stops the flow of electricity to the wall when a device is turned off—so I don’t have to unplug everything myself.
Yesterday, I finally found it: The “Smart Strip.” It’s a power strip that detects when computers or other devices are on or off and shuts off the power accordingly, thus eliminating the idle current being drawn from the appliance.
Smart Strips start at $30.95 and have been shown to save up to $20 a month on your electric bill, and if it’s being used for a computer, the device pays for itself within six weeks.
You can find them on amazon.com or on the Smart Strip site, smarthomeusa.com. The device can also be found in selected radio shacks.
Personally, I’m going to get a couple — one for my entertainment center and one for my computer station, and I’ll let you know how it works. I’m excited to save money and actually know I’ll be doing something good for the environment. Has anyone out there used this device?
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Posted by Gillian Aldrich, Features Editor
4 Comments:
Kristin says:
April 4th, 2009 at 9:25 pm
I knew there was a reason All You was my favorite!! We just can’t get in the groove of unplugging things when we aren’t using them but we could use this!! I’m searching for it on Amazon now. Thanks!
Dave says:April 18th, 2009 at 2:27 am
Please note – this is not helpful for things such as lamps and other hard switched items that you turn off by hand – in most cases these completely cut off the flow of electricity. Other devices such as TVs may continually use power after you turn them off, however it is for a reason such as maintaining custom settings or channel searches you have entered – try unplugging your tv and you may see that it needs to be “set up” again next time you plug it in. The one thing this power strip will help with is anything that converts AC power to DC. Examples are adapters, chargers, the black “box” between the wall plug and the plug that goes into your computer. These devices use some power even when your computer is not on. Even without this power strip it is good practice to unplug these devices – you will notice that they get warm or even hot to the touch, and they can be a fire hazard.
Davids says:December 18th, 2009 at 4:00 am
Thank you for your resource .. great site!
Mike says:December 18th, 2009 at 8:59 am
Thank for sharing!