Standby Saver System???

Poppycat

How about this, just plug you phone in the plug that is always on standby, uses a remote so I assume you can have the eye thing in site and plugs behind the cainet

http://www.smartplanet.com/news/tech/10001559/money-saving-standby-saver-hits-argos-at-20.htm

Linguistic_Chimp

Poppycat wrote: »

How about this, just plug you phone in the plug that is always on standby, uses a remote so I assume you can have the eye thing in site and plugs behind the cainet

http://www.smartplanet.com/news/tech/10001559/money-saving-standby-saver-hits-argos-at-20.htm

That looks really good - almost perfect - but after reading through the product page, it seems like when I pressed my nominated 'off' button (i.e. the one on the TV remote) then the stereo would be automatically switched off too. the reverse of this problem seems silly too - that everything would be switched on once I turned the TV on. Which would waste more energy as sometimes, we don't need the PS3 on.

One other question: when turning off the PS3 we normally have to turn it off with a finger sensor at the front, then flick a switch behind it - while it remains plugged in. Would an energy saving unit of some kind mean that none of that was required or would it damage the hard drive...?

Bill_Earmark

The best of these standby savers looks like the Savasocket, 'most energy efficient' and its getting all the awards. It appears to have the lowest operating consumption, many of the others don't report that they use 1w+ when not doing anything which defeats the object. I worked out that a 40 inch TV, DVD, Playstation, set-top HD box + Savasocket would pay for itself in about 9 months. Works with your own remote control as opposed to digging around for a supplied one - handy! Have a look at their website, I can't link being a newbie.

forgotmyname

Still cheaper to use a standard extension, Switched one if main socket has limited access.

Then you just power on the items you need. I dont turn on the DVD, Freesat unless i plan to
use them.

No risk of it shutting down when its recording. Which some boxes dont stop.

Power off the TV also powers off the video recorder, Even if its recording.

One of these, This is argos and expensive i bought a 6 way one from wilkinsons before xmas for about
half this price.

http://www.argos.co.uk/static/Product/partNumber/9827174/Trail/searchtext%3ESWITCHED+SOCKET.htm

tonsai

Bill_Earmark wrote: »

The best of these standby savers looks like the Savasocket, 'most energy efficient' and its getting all the awards. It appears to have the lowest operating consumption, many of the others don't report that they use 1w+ when not doing anything which defeats the object. I worked out that a 40 inch TV, DVD, Playstation, set-top HD box + Savasocket would pay for itself in about 9 months. Works with your own remote control as opposed to digging around for a supplied one - handy! Have a look at their website, I can't link being a newbie.

Does anyone know where I can buy one of these from? Also I'm looking for a device that will turn off my mobile phone charger once it has finished charging. I've heard there is a device like the Savasocket but for mobile phones.

Cardew

tonsai wrote: »

Does anyone know where I can buy one of these from? Also I'm looking for a device that will turn off my mobile phone charger once it has finished charging. I've heard there is a device like the Savasocket but for mobile phones.

Even when charging I doubt if your mobile phone charger is drawing more than 1 or 2 watts. and less when phone is fully charged.

So if you leave it on charge all the time i.e. 24/7 it will probably cost about £1 per year.

zeupater

tonsai wrote: »

Does anyone know where I can buy one of these from? Also I'm looking for a device that will turn off my mobile phone charger once it has finished charging. I've heard there is a device like the Savasocket but for mobile phones.

Hi

We've got 10 of them in the house at the moment & I expect another 10 to arrive within the next few minutes .... very low tech devices found at the extremities of your arms

You could try a programmable timer but you'll find that setting the timer each time will be more hassle than it's worth and probably consumes around the same as a modern charger when it's just sitting there anyway ... it's much easier to put the mobile phone on charge only when it needs it, doing so when you go to bed and then switch the charger off in the morning ....

HTH
Z

rogerblack

Cardew wrote: »

Even when charging I doubt if your mobile phone charger is drawing more than 1 or 2 watts. and less when phone is fully charged.

So if you leave it on charge all the time i.e. 24/7 it will probably cost about £1 per year.

Feel the charger.
A typical mobile phone charger sized adaptor will get noticably warm - say 10-15C over ambient - when using one watt of electricity.
If it feels cold, it's less than this.

One watt costs around 1.50 a year.

Cardew

rogerblack wrote: »

One watt costs around 1.50 a year.

1 watt consumption on 24/7 is 8.76kWh so under a pound for most people(using tier 2 prices)

noncom_2

Much as I (generally) admire Cardew's scepticism:

I bought a (quite expensive at £25) Standby Saver strip for our TV setup.

Obviously the PVR cannot be powered off entirely, as it needs to wake up for recordings. We discovered the TV can't either, as it takes so long to wake up again it confuses the Harmony Remote. So both of those remain powered all the time. However, the strip provides two Permanently On sockets for this purpose.

You may ask what benefit that has over plugging them into another socket on the wall, and the answer is that the strip also contains a degree of surge protection.

So, plugged into the strip and having their power completely removed when we press off on the remote: Audio Amplifier, Powered Sub Woofer, Wii, DVD player, Network Media Player.

The last three consume almost trivial amounts of power on standby, but the first two do not: Audio Amplifier takes almost 5W to keep it warm according to the manual, and the Powered Sub a whopping 15W.

Supposing that we're only watching TV etc for 4 hours a day (actually much less than this usually), thats 20hrs per day of 20W saved.

So 400Wh per day * 365 days = 146kWh per year

Even at Cardew's benchmark 8p to 9p per unit for electricity (and I can assure him I pay a lot more for that, as I use a genuinely green supplier, and I suspect few people actually pay that little), the saver strip will pay for itself in a couple of years.