Easy Green Living: Use a smart power strip for PC or TV systems

You might have heard the phrase that some electronics that use "vampire power" even when they're off.  This is because most electronics like TVs, computer monitors, stereo's, video game consoles, etc. continue to draw electricity even when you've turned them off.  This is because they have to keep some of their electronics always on to do things like be on the watch for someone who presses the on button on the remote control.  Think about it: how could your TV turn on via your remote control if it wasn't at minimal providing power to it's little sensor that detects signals from a remote control (side note: remote controls work by sending pulses of infrared light)?  Other electronics like your cell phone or iPod charger similarly use power even when you don't have anything plugged into them.  For these chargers, it's because the very simple & cheap electronics used in those power "bricks" or fat "wall warts" constantly draw power and do not have more intelligent electronics that will completely shut them off when it knows that there is nothing in the charger.  Don't believe me?  Try feeling one of those power bricks or wall warts when there's nothing in the charger.  Notice that it's a little warm and not totally cool?  Yep, that's because it's using some electricity doing nothing.  A few cell phone chargers are starting to incorporate computer chips that will make the charger draw virtually zero power when it detects the phone isn't plugged in, but this is a fairly new feature, so don't expect your electronics will have this.

If you want to know exactly how much vampire power is being sucked by your electronics, you can buy a simple tool called the Kill A Watt Monitor that tells you how many watts it is consuming.

What to do?  Well, the simple and cheap thing to do is to put these types of electronics on a power strip, and simply switch them off when not in use. This may not be practical if the electronics that are grouped on the same power strip have varying demands for being on or off, like having cell phone, cordless phone, and MP3 chargers on the same power strip.  Your cordless phone should probably always be getting power, while you cell phone needs power when you're home in the evenings and night, and the MP3 only needs it occasionally.

However, some electronics, like those used for your PC or home entertainment center tend to have the same timing for power demands.  That is, they all need to need be on or off at the same time.  For example, you probably no need for your PC's monitor, printer, and audio speakers to on unless your PC itself is on.  In your living room, you probably don't need your AV receiver or DVD/Blu-ray player to be on unless your TV is on.  These kinds of electronics are perfect candidates for getting plugged into a smart power strip.

A smart power strip is similar to the power strips you're used to seeing, except they have certain outlets that will automatically be powered completely off when it detects that you turned off your "master control" devices (like your TV or PC).  It will also automatically re-energize those outlets when it detects that your master control device is on.  It also has a few "always on" outlets for plugging in devices that you want to be always on, say like if you have your cordless phone plugged into the power strip.  How does it automatically know when the master control device is on or off?  It has some simple electronics that looks for a sudden change in power consumption, which is what your computer or TV will exhibit when you turn it on or off.  The right is an example of the Smart Strip that I use.

So walk around you house, look at all your electronics, and see if you have clusters of electronics that could benefit from using a standard or smart power strip!