A smart way of saving energy (desktop related)

Schizophonic

Schizophonic

Schizophonic

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Looking through this month's T3 magazine, they gave this product "green gadget of the year". Now I've not been following all the latest green eco friendly gadgets but this one made sense.

May I introduce you to the Desktop Computer Intelliplug - DSK105, you can find item descriptions through google but check out http://www.trustedreviews.com/peripherals/review/2007/10/29/OneClick-IntelliPlug/p1. Even though this was published back in 2007 its not till now I actually paid any attention.

You can watch a product video below:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtCDLq79p1c

Excuse the rock music.

As we're all from a computer forum, I think this will benefit most of us and look at ways to save a bit of cash. I know many of you (including me) have peripherals attached to our desktop and switching these off would be a beneficial factor.
 
EON gave a load of these away free. I've used one for ages now. It doesn't save much energy though as it has both my monitors plugged into it and they use very little power on standby.
 
I've seen these before, you can use them with TVs too so when you turn the TV off it turns off your sky box/dvd/consoles etc...
 
Skyfall said:
I've seen these before, you can use them with TVs too so when you turn the TV off it turns off your sky box/dvd/consoles etc...
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There is a product from the same company designed for AV equipment. The only difference is that the product has an IR reciever so it detects when you switch off the TV via the remote. Pritty neat.

My lounge needs something like this, at the moment I have loads on standby, TV, AV receiver, Sky, HTPC, and SUB
 
Schizophonic said:
There is a product from the same company designed for AV equipment. The only difference is that the product has an IR reciever so it detects when you switch off the TV via the remote. Pritty neat.

My lounge needs something like this, at the moment I have loads on standby, TV, AV receiver, Sky, HTPC, and SUB
Click to expand...

Is that the one that was on Dragons Den? I saw one of them in Tesco's and it was about £40, would take quite a while for that to pay for itself?
 
I have had one of these for my PC for ages now. When I turn off my PC everything shuts down about 5 seconds after the base unit and vice versa. It’s great and I have no issues at all. The only thing not on it is my broadband router as I keep it running for the wireless on my wife and I’s phones.

In addition, my TV, Sky+, Xbox, Bluray, Wii and lounge table lamp are all controlled by remote controlled plugs (radio). Fab gadget and the first thing that actually got my wife to turn the TV off rather than put it on standby (apparently it was too much hassle to push the button on the way past).

TBH, I have no idea how much money I save but the convenience is certainly a plus, therefore win-win in my eyes.
 
Yeah, these things arent new by any stretch of the imagination - use one on my pc and in the living room for quite some time, very good but some need reprogramming after a power cut.
 
MickeyFinns said:
Is that the one that was on Dragons Den? I saw one of them in Tesco's and it was about £40, would take quite a while for that to pay for itself?
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Half a lifetime, unless you have something horribly inefficient on standby.

For instance, my TV uses 1W on standby, and my PC now uses 2W. It used to use 3W on its' old PSU.

Tested them using an electrical testing meter.

365days x 24hours @ 1W = 8.7KWh / year.

@ 12p per KWh that = £0.96

So in essence leaving my TV on standby costs me a pound a year. Compared to the incovenience of turning it off on the TV switch, or at the difficult to reach plug, I'll just pay the pound thanks.

Same with the £3 or now £2 per year for my PC. Let alone the cost of replacing the CMOS battery which would pack up faster without mains assistance.
 
matt_fsr said:
*Equations*
Click to expand...

I did a similar equation for my tv, think it worked out, running the TV for one hour, was the same as leaving it on standby for 600 hours in power consumption terms. And as I can't be bothered to fish my arm down the back of a TV cabinet to unplug something every day, I'll just leave it on, lol.
 
As said, standby killers are useless.

Also how much has it cost in energy to produce and transport the device, it might end up harming the environment more than it actually saves?
 
My Daddy has forced me to use one... It's a bit gay though because if I had sky+ I couldn't use it as it would mess up my recordings.

In fact it can't save hardly any energy, why else would a power company send out a device that reduces your consumption? Would destroy profit if it worked properly...
 
I have one of these - its rubbish for my machine. A couple of seconds after a heavy gaming session it will turn off all my other stuff, speakers etc. So I need to shutdown my pc to get things back!
 
Oxy said:
My Daddy has forced me to use one... It's a bit gay though because if I had sky+ I couldn't use it as it would mess up my recordings.

In fact it can't save hardly any energy, why else would a power company send out a device that reduces your consumption? Would destroy profit if it worked properly...
Click to expand...
Because they're being set government targets to incentivise you to use less power.
 
matt_fsr said:
So in essence leaving my TV on standby costs me a pound a year. Compared to the incovenience of turning it off on the TV switch, or at the difficult to reach plug, I'll just pay the pound thanks.
Click to expand...

It's more about the collective save in energy. If everyone used these devices - or manually switched off stuff they aren't using - the energy savings would be substantial.
 
I save energy on my desktop my increasing the sensitivity of my mouse. That way I don't have to move it as far, thus saving energy! :D
 
i had one of these free from Eon, but i never used it. The only thing i used to leave switch on at the socket was the fridge. Got quite anal about it but you do save cash when everything is actually off and not on standby.
 
SiriusB said:
It's more about the collective save in energy. If everyone used these devices - or manually switched off stuff they aren't using - the energy savings would be substantial.
Click to expand...
Do you really think that saving a few standby watts makes a substantial impact?

As I said, the energy that went in to making and transporting these devices might mean you have to use one for 50 years before you actually save any energy.

If the government/manufacturers are really serious about energy saving they should spend some money into making better energy saving bulbs instead of the LED crap there is now instead of focusing on small issues like standby power use.
 
I've switched to using my netbook plugged into my monitor via HDMI and got rid of my desktop for far greater power savings. Granted it's not much of a beast in processing terms but I like the <20w power consumption:)
 
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