Smart Strip LCG4 Energy Saving Power Strip with Autoswitching Technology and Fax/Modem Surge Protection
by Smart Strip
|
List Price: Our Price: $29.29 You Save: $12.66 (30%) Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days Buy Used: from $27.00 (click here) Category: Tools See more product details |
|---|
Tools and Hardware Reviews of Smart Strip LCG4 Energy Saving Power Strip with Autoswitching Technology and Fax/Modem Surge Protection
Customer Review: best idea in power since power came to to the masses
Summary: 5 Stars
these smart strips just plain work. they are brilliantly conceived and the quality and functionality is great. some outlets (plugs) are always hot and some are hot only when you turn on the main device connected to a special plug; they are conditional or "smart". this is brilliant since i can not use my XBOX unless my TV is on; one gadget is dependent on the other. there is a perfect mix of always-on and "smart" plugs. i have yet to find myself without enough of either plug in a set up. i have 2 versions of these now; one for the TV system and one for my PC system. besides the power savings it's convenient to have the "smart" plugs connected to peripherals to save time when starting up. my light, printer and other items turn on when i fire up the PC. My Xbox is off until i turn on the TV and then it's ready to go.
in case you do not know already Benjamin Franklin did not just harness electricity, he was a conservationist and would be so fond of this invention. it is pricey but it is such a good idea that beyond the energy savings (think oil dependence not just cost) this makes your life better through efficiency. Suggestion: check out what S3 standby is (for your PC) on the internet and then see if your PC can be set up to use it. it's basically an instant on from something similar to sleep mode using almost no power. i use mine with keyboard activation so it takes about 4 seconds to launch everything on my desk with a press of any key and be productive or online.
Note; this does require a sufficient amount of power to go through the main outlet to activate the smart plugs. i tried it on my 17 inch iMac and even with the sensitivity adjuster (brilliant feature) i could not make it sense enough power change to activate and shut down the smart plugs. i suppose that is good for the iMac not drawing much power but bad in that i can not automatically shut down those peripherals like the sound system i have attached to it, which does draw a lot of power.
Customer Review: Actually works!
Summary: 5 Stars
I was pretty skeptical about this product when I first ordered it, but decided to try it anyway. I had recently read online that an XBox wastes around $17/year a receiver around $35/year and a subwoofer more like $50!
I got this, plugged the TV (42" LCD) into the sensed plug, the DVR into an always on plug and everything else into one of the slave plugs since I'm probably not going to watch a DVD or play XBox without the TV on. There is no unusual delay between when I hit the power button on the remote and when the TV and everything else turns on, its all pretty much instant, if I hadn't been so excited about getting this my wife wouldn't even know about it!(not that she really cared anyway) The layout of the plugs is nice, with 4 widely spaced plugs for transformer packs and all the grounds facing outward. I didn't have to fiddle with it at all, but there's an adjuster on the side if its not sensitive enough. I don't have any hard numbers for savings, but at least I feel like I'm doing my small part.
My only complaint, however small it may be, is that the wall plug from this is angled for some reason. This might not be a problem with vertical wall receptacles, but mine are horizontal in the baseboard, so it sticks up and puts some strain on the whole plug and cord system and just generally annoys me. I would definitely recommend this and would would love to see some numbers before and after.
Customer Review: Works well for remote desktop connections on XP
Summary: 5 Stars
Before I forget to write... Purchased if off GoldBox a
few weeks ago.
This unit worked out of the box for my application, no tweaking
or setup was required; A Dell Desk-side being accessed remotely
from a Dell Laptop. I do not use "suspend" as my disk image is
to large for a reliable suspend image.
I control 2 printers, 2 scanners, 2(+) USB HDDs', 2 LCD Monitors
and items as needed (such as MP players, Watcom tablets) with
no problems.
It is set this way as I am lazy and use the laptop late at night and
no longer have to get my buttocks out of bed to shut down the
system. I use the command line "shutdown" command remotely to turn
off the desk-side (I no longer use "wake on LAN" due to the
aforementioned suspend issue) as I find it convenient to hit
the power on the desk-side when required. This type of setup,
obviously, will not be the case for everyone. Hum... a "wake on
LAN" Ethernet port on the switch might be an interesting product enhancement??
For this application the unit is a dream and has faded into the
normal day to day operation and goes unnoticed, which is
a very good thing.
Best,
Joe
Customer Review: A real money saver
Summary: 5 Stars
I bought this because I found out that my home theater receiver is a power hog. It uses 60 watts even when "off". I did the math, and assuming I want it on 6 hours a day, this would pay back fast. I added a few extra things: a sub woofer (6w at idle), VCR (7w when "off"), and a DVD player (2w when off). I measured all this with my Kill-a-Watt.
Add that up and you get 75w that's wasted. Multiply 75w * 18 hours a day * 365 days * $0.18 (cost of a kwh of electricity here)/1000 = $89/year in savings. This thing will take less than 6 months to pay for itself. You can plug in your own numbers and figure your payback time.
Installation was a breeze. I plugged my tv into the "control" outlet. My receiver, VCR, sub woofer, and DVD player got plugged into the switched outlets. There are some always on outlets too, and I plugged the UPS that has my Wii and TiVo into one of those.
Then I turned on the power switch. No adjustment was necessary.
Now when I turn on my TV, the receiver and sub (and the rest) turn on with it. When I turn off the TV, the rest of the stuff turns off too.
Customer Review: Worked great right out of the box
Summary: 5 Stars
Why does this one with the phone line protection cost less than the one without? I don't know, but I bought this one for the better price, although I didn't bother with plugging in the phone line. Really, I just needed a power strip with more outlets on it, and thought I'd try this out.
I have a pc controlling the strip, speakers, two printers, and my DSL modem plugged into the controlled outlets, and a lamp in an always-on outlet. It worked perfectly the first time, without having to adjust the little wheel at all. I have my BIOS set to turn on the computer every morning, and this was not affected at all. Yes, I have the modem turning off when I turn off the PC, although the box says to put it in an always-on outlet. I just wanted the added protection against any weird malware using internet connection overnight. By the time I'm ready to use the computer in the morning, it's already reconnected.
I hope to save a little energy (too soon to tell), but even if I don't-- it's nice to have plenty of room on a power strip, and convenient to be able to turn everything off at once.