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setcamper · Joined: 10 Jan 2009 Posts: 1

As I understand it, the surest way to eliminate unwanted power drain from an appliance or peripheral is to completely unplug it from the outlet, but I was hoping to find a power strip that basically mimicked that.

I recently purchase 2 LCG3's for my Television (+game console, +DVD player, +DVR, small stereo) and one of my Computers (+monitor, +speakers, +printer). I assumed this strip would basically create the same effect as unplugging each of those components (so long as they weren't plugged into the "constant hot outlets"). But I've noticed that the Control Outlet components (TV or CPU) seem to still be drawing their standby power when turned off. Is that supposed to happen?

I guess what I'm asking is; How much power is being drawn by this strip when the Control Outlet component is powered off compared to if I completely unplugged the strip from the outlet? Is it just the "Automatically Switched Outlets" that are drawing no power as if they were unplugged?

I'm comparing this strip to the Belkin model that has it's own power off switch, which seems to be a complete conservation of power in everything related to those outlets when turned off. This strip seems to only conserve power for the extra components, no necessarily from you TV and/or CPU.

Ian · Joined: 16 Dec 2005 Posts: 90 Location: Smithtown, NY

Hello,

Yes, you are correct in that the control outlet on the SmartStrip will always remain on and anything plugged into that could still use its standby electricity.

Every device is different and without a meter like the Kill-A-Watt it is hard to see what the standby vampire current is on the control device. Some devices are more efficient then others with their standby current. For example my 19" LG LCD screen for my desktop consumes less then one watt while off or on standby.

The Belkin Power Strip will cut power to all outlets so there is no control outlet that "bleeds" like the SmartStrip. The main difference is that the SmartStrip will automatically power on or off your peripherals where as the Belkin strips relies on you to turn it off with the remote.

Both devices will save some energy, however, the Belkin strip won't know your PC went to stand by and automatically turn off and of the switched outlets.