Sir, you are a polypragmatist. Mind your own business
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Aussies come up with power saving plug
TWO AUSSIE BOFFINS have come up with a plug which they say can cut household energy use by automatically switching off electronics devices when they are not in use and eliminating "standby" power consumption.
Domenico Gelonese claimed new power boards could save households money and help the environment by detecting when devices such as TVs, DVD players and printers are not in use and automatically switching them off.
Paul Ryan told the Sydney Morning Herald that the devices cut energy use of audio visual devices by 54 per cent and PC devices by 41 per cent. This equated to savings of about $130 and $65 a year, respectively.
Products featuring his technology would arrive in Australia in the second half of this year at around £25.
The technology was worked out by Domenico's electrical engineer dad Tony who used it to ensure that all of the devices connected to his computer would switch off when his computer was switched off.
It might be useful in the EU where Directive Lot 6 (PDF), which came into force from the beginning of this year, says that new electronic devices must have a passive standby power draw of no more than 1W, to fall to 0.5W from 2013. µ
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Does this differ from this product?
http://www.amazon.co.uk/exec/obidos/ASIN/B000MPJSL0/hubmaker-21
The problem is every time you park the heads it wastes a little ink, do this after every print, and you will use even more inkjet cartridges.
Btw, with windows 7 and its very very good support for suspend to ram (S3 state) would this device turn off your computer when it drops down to this state?
As others have said, I am very happy to pay for standby power, because the one thing I hate more than paying bills is waiting for something to do its job.
i don't know about you guys, but i don't want my electrical gizmo's turned off, i like having them on standby. its my money and i'll spend it how i want. stop telling me to turn stuff off. on is the way forward.
To be honest, it's time that inkjet printer manufacturers simply learned to write firmware that parks and caps the heads after every print job.
The fact that inkjet printers can be damaged by power cuts doesn't change the fact that they could easily have been designed a better way.
So yet another invention that fails to take notice of the fact that an inkjet printer NEEDS to clean and park its heads before it turns off. By yanking the mains away this will lead to more clogging, more wasted ink and more replaced printers. Oops - not as green as they thought.
See http://www.maplin.co.uk/Search.aspx?menuno=69512
This already exists with atleast two different products: the Tricklesaver and the Smart Strip (which includes a surge protector)
... in the shops, longer than a year ago.
Doing a google search came up with an article about energy saving products from 2006 which features the Engergy Saving Intelli Plug which seems to have similar features. Follow that link and there is a link to one for TVs which turns off other devices when the TV isn't being used.
Don't get me wrong, I really like the idea (I'd like to be able to turn off the Hifi, PS3, XBOX360, and DVD player) when the TV isn't in use but I've found these things can be expensive.
Maybe I'd be better off with two extension cables, one for stuff I want to leave on all the time (router, cable modem) and then put everything else on a switched extension. Even then I'd like to be able to turn off other devices without having to crawl behind the TV, I mean I don't use the XBOX 360 much at the moment but I do occasionally use it, so maybe being able to easily kill the power to it rather than leaving it on standby would be good, same goes for the Wii.
Rob
I've puy US plugs on all non necessary items but left the sockets UK 3 pin.
Simples
The cost will outweigh any benefit of saving power. I have a desktop that is plugged into a 3 plug surge protector, I unplug it when not using it. Will it work with surge protectors?
If they where cheap I would use them but if not buy a multiplug surge protector with a power switch and turn it off when not in use. My living room tv and stereo are rarely used and I can turn it on or off with my foot.We get a lot off wind storms where I live so I have a surge protector on every outlet.
I am a big believer in not wasting anything but you have to weigh the cost vs savings.