Do you find yourself dreading your electricity bill each month when it arrives? Do you express surprise at the amount you see when you open the envelope? Do you have to sit down and figure out how that number was computed, because for you it's just too much?
People have a tendency to underestimate the amount of electricity they use especially when there are so many ways it is wasted. In fact, appliances still use up electricity even when switched off! Whatever name it's called—idle current, phantom load—it's still consumed energy you have to pay for, yet don't use.
It's time to put a stop to wasted electricity with the use of smart power strips. A smart power strip is a very helpful device that cuts off the flow of electricity to appliances when they're plugged in yet turned off. Smart power strips look like your typical multi-socket power extension and they work the same way to a point; however, a smart power strip recognizes when you've turned off your appliances. At that point, the smart power strip completely turns off your devices—it's as if you unplugged them from the wall. Your gadgets and appliances will not eat up idle current.
Smart power strips are able to recognize when your appliances are switched off because they are programmed to remember the usual flow of electricity running through your devices when switched on. Thus, when you switch off your devices, the amount of current changes and this change is the trigger that sets the smart power strip into action.
Of course, why is there a need for smart power strips if you can just unplug your appliances? Although the best way to stop idle current is to unplug all your devices when not in use, it’s not practical to do so every single time. What if the plug for your TV goes all the way to the back and you have to move the whole thing to the side just to be able to reach it? What if you were really sleepy and forgot to unplug your DVD player? Those scenarios are just two examples in which you end up paying for wasted electricity when you shouldn’t have to. Why take the chance? It’s better to use a smart power strip so that you don’t have any worries after you turn the switch off your say your computer. Aside from nipping idle current in the bud, smart power strips also prevent power surges that regular power extensions can’t do. It’s a benefit that will help your appliances have a longer life because of the added protection.
A smart power strip is an affordable tool to add to your how-to-save-more-money arsenal. Different kinds of models exist with varying numbers of sockets. Whatever your requirements are, there’s a model that suits your exact needs. |
