Let's face it: If you're reading this, you probably have at least two surge protectors stuffed with AC adapters and power cables, suckling electricity from the grid like a litter of hungry piglets. And the fact is, even if your PC is powered down, your phone's fully charged, and your TV is turned off--as long as the power cables are plugged in, your devices are still consuming electricity. It's called the standby power, or the phantom load, and it adds up to billions of watts wasted in the United States every year; it raises your electric bill and strains the already thinly stretched electric grid.
Of course, you could go around several times a day plugging and unplugging devices as you use them. But with most cables hidden behind desks, dressers and entertainment stands, that isn't exactly easy. Thankfully, Belkin's $50 Conserve Surge Protector solves the problem with elegant simplicity, thanks to a wireless switch.
The slim surge protector itself is pretty standard, at least on the surface: eight outlets compete with safety covers, a cable guide on one side, and a circuit breaker switch on the other. But bundled with the surge protector is a wall-mountable, palm-size wireless switch that lets you easily cut power to you gadgets and appliances when they're not in use. The switch even pops out of its wall plate, so you can pocket it and use it wherever's most convenient.
Of course, some devices, such as routers and alarm clocks, need to be powered most or all of the time. Belkin has taken care of that by making two of the surge protector's outlets "always on." The six switchable outlets are bordered by a black line, which will hopefully keep you from switching off your DVR right before it's about to record the next episode of "House."
And because most of us likely have more than one surge protector in our homes (I have six), Belkin's added small channel switches to the protector and the remote. That way, if you buy more than one of these, you won't turn your living-room television off when you're on your way out of the bedroom for the day.
On a personal note, I can vouch for the reliability of Belkin's surge protectors. When my house was hit by lightning a couple years ago, everything from the TV to the printer to my girlfriend's computer was fried. And some of those things were plugged into surge protectors from other brands. But my PC, plugged into a Belkin surge protector, was perfectly fine.
Mixx It
Digg It
Stumble
More...
September 2, 2008 5:15 PM
VERY cool. Now I don't have to dive behind the TV to turn on and off the power strip when I know all the gear attached to it can be turned off. :)
Actually - this is something of a project of mine; a lot of people have saved some good cash by plugging in their always-on devices to one strip and their "can be safely turned off" devices to another, and then just cutting the strip on and off when needed. This could be a huge help.
September 4, 2008 12:08 PM
Doesn't the fact that the surge has a wireless remote imply that it too will have a phantom load? Unless it's a mechanical switch there will have to be circuitry powered up to "listen" to the wireless remote and activate/deactivate the sockets.
I assume that this load should still be LESS than that of the devices plugged into it and should provide savings regardless.
An easy way to find these phantoms is at night - look for anything that glows or uses a remote.
September 8, 2008 11:48 AM
This is an IDEAL solution. I really like the fact that I will have control when I switch the outlets off to save electricity and money. I would imagine that you can wirelessly link more than one surge protector to the same switch (for example, set one up behind my AV set-up and another with my computer set-up). When I go up to bed or leave the house, I can hit one switch and turn off everything at once. I assume the switch can be mounted on my wall - I'd put it right next to my light switch. That's going to be a real convenience.
November 6, 2008 10:18 PM
I didn't notice the RF part when I purchased it. It works fine, but I was thinking of programming my Harmony remote to operate this in tandem with my plethora of other IR devices... Nice concept, but, does anyone offer an IR/RF remote to make this thing REALLY useful?