Remote controlled power sockets

gort · 6 Sep 2009 at 21:45

Anyone use this type of thing for hard to reach plug sockets/switches or just out of pure laziness?

Can't link to the actual website as they're a competitor (I think.)

Ta

aaron333 · 6 Sep 2009 at 21:46

How much are they?

Substance · 6 Sep 2009 at 21:51

Surely the reciever uses power and is always on whilst waiting for the signal so is a waste of time if trying to use as an energy saving device, may aswell just have whatever it is that is plugged into it on standby

Heliospherez · 6 Sep 2009 at 22:28

I've had two sets of them.

Both were pretty rubbish to be honest. The first set (Remote and four plugs) decided to take on a mind of it's own, and would turn off randomly. Pretty annoying considering I had put them in hard to reach palces to power my PC at the time.

Second set of 3 plugs and remote just never worked properly from day one. And they were battery powered - and ate the batteries. They are also quite big, so don't expect to put them in small recesses with another plug stuck in them.

They may have come on a bit now though.

gort · 7 Sep 2009 at 10:37

aaron333 said:
How much are they?

£19.99

SuBsTaNcE said:
Surely the reciever uses power and is always on whilst waiting for the signal so is a waste of time if trying to use as an energy saving device, may aswell just have whatever it is that is plugged into it on standby

Wasn't planning on using them for saving energy but your point is seen and noted.
Got some aquarium lights that I don't use on timers and it's a pain trying to reach down into the cupboard each time to turn them on and off as the cupboards is obstructed partially by a sofa which has to be moved each time!

divosuk said:
I've had two sets of them.

Both were pretty rubbish to be honest. ........

......They may have come on a bit now though.

The set mentioned is from a hight street store so can take it back if it is indeed naff. May as well give them a go.

Cheers!

oneale90 · 7 Sep 2009 at 10:44

gort said:
Got some aquarium lights that I don't use on timers and it's a pain trying to reach down into the cupboard each time to turn them on and off as the cupboards is obstructed partially by a sofa which has to be moved each time!
Cheers!

So why not just buy a timer instead? Cheaper and not a total waste of money?

Gornall · 7 Sep 2009 at 10:56

I use them in my room, mainly for when I watch TV in bed and stuff.

Means I can put everything on standby then essentially unplug about 5 devices from the wall using one of these things.

So overall power output would be a little less. Mainly a convenience thing though.

Wicksta · 7 Sep 2009 at 10:59

My parents have a set of these and they work fine. I saw them at Christmas and they had used them on the Christmas lights to save reaching behind the tree.

Glaucus · 7 Sep 2009 at 11:03

If you want something like that, you be better of setting up an x10 Home Automation system.

But more expensive. but can set it up so you can have a night button. Which switches everything of and lots of other things.

checjb · 7 Sep 2009 at 12:14

I've had a set of these for a couple of years. They control the power to all my AV kit (except my Sky+HD box in case I record overnight). They mean that at the end of the night I just click the remote to turn everything off without any hassle. In terms of power saving they actually do save some (measured with my Owl monitor), they are hugely convenient, they stop my wife leaving everything on standby because she can't be bothered to walk over to the plug and the final benefit is that they enable me to carry on using my wife's favourite lamp on which the internal switch went a few months ago so its always on. Without the auto-switch it'd have to be binned so there is a saving right there.
C.

schnipps · 7 Sep 2009 at 12:20

Yeah i use them, for the garden lights, water feature, side garage lights, then 2 internal lights where the plugs are a faff to get too. One set i had was terrible but there are good sets out there that are reliable.

RobH · 7 Sep 2009 at 12:25

SuBsTaNcE said:
Surely the reciever uses power and is always on whilst waiting for the signal so is a waste of time if trying to use as an energy saving device, may aswell just have whatever it is that is plugged into it on standby

They do use power for their internal electronics but probably no where near the amount of the devices you typically plug into them, a couple of watts at the most compared to putting your TV setup into standby which is probably nearer 50-100 watts.

TBirdUK · 7 Sep 2009 at 12:34

I use about 4 sets of these throughout the house/garage. They are reliable, convient and do, overall save money.

They control the following,

Lights
AV equip inc sky etc
TVs
Computers
Battery chargers
video senders (instead of using fiddly switches)

Have checked these against my power usage meter (only got it this weekend) and if I switch the plugs off via these instead of going into standby my usage drops from 0.27 to 0.15.

now and again they do switch off randomly, but that was down to confliction with a nieghbours new set, so I switched channels, re-learnt and no issues since.

The greatest use is seeing the power meter running higher than normal when I have already gone to bed and then doing an all off without getting up - now just need to combine into either 1 remote or control by computer - any ideas on this would be cool.

hope that helps

manic111 · 7 Sep 2009 at 12:47

We have a set of these in our living room for turning lights on and off, as we have no wall switch in there. The ones we have at the moment are brilliant, whereas the ones which we had prior to these needed direct line of sight between the remote and the plug, which didn't help with a TV or table in front of the sockets!

gort · 7 Sep 2009 at 14:08

oneale90 said:
So why not just buy a timer instead? Cheaper and not a total waste of money?

I don't want the lights on for a certain number of hrs every day; it's not a planted tank so no need. I only have the lights on when I'm actually at home which (as I do shift work) can be odd times all over the place. So little point in having 100w of lights on when I'm not at home. All those pennies soon add up over the year. I sometimes go a few days without turning the lights on because I'm not at home long enough.

Glad to hear of others using them and recommending them! Didn't know they existed until the other day!

Aod · 7 Sep 2009 at 14:17

RobH said:
They do use power for their internal electronics but probably no where near the amount of the devices you typically plug into them, a couple of watts at the most compared to putting your TV setup into standby which is probably nearer 50-100 watts.

a TV setup on standby using 50 to 100 watts? rubbish. a DVD player will use about 1 or 2 watts at most while on standby. a Plasma or CRT TV will use about 10 or 12, an LCD TV will use about 5 Watts.

lets say you've got a VCR, a CRT TV, a DVD player and a AV receiver, you'll be using maybe 25 Watts maximum

Bennie-Mac · 7 Sep 2009 at 14:23

I got 2 of them from tescos, cost me £4.99 for 2 plugs and 2 remotes (think they were halp price at the time though), work fine and have helped me cut my electric bill by £25 a quarter. I use one for my TV, DVD, PS3, and home cinema speakers, and the other is on my Sky box so i can leave it on if something needs recorded. Remote works from pretty much anywhere in the house.

TBirdUK · 7 Sep 2009 at 14:32

got 2 sets from Aldi/Lidl on different offers (but both were £9.99 for 1 remote 4 plugs incl a dimmer which I dont use), the others I got from an electronics shop.

All are really reliable and I find really useful. You can get a couple and try them out, if good then go the whole hog - I would like to control them all by one remote but the remote is radio not IR so Havent found a decent (cheap) one for all!