Battleangel | Personal

The 5+1 master/slave netpower block is simply an outlet that automatically cuts off the power supply to the slave outlets when the supply current to the master outlet is severely diminished. Ideal for use with a computer to turn off devices like powered speakers that lack a proper power switch or have substandard transformers that can easily consume 10-15W in standby mode. For instance, my Creative P380 2.1 system consumes 13W  regardless of what they’re doing and switching them off using the little knob on the back of the subwoofer doesn’t make any difference. Which leads me to believe that the huge, ugly brick of a transformer has something to do with it. There is however a small caveat when using these and other outlets that I have. In a way they work pretty much like the bargain bin UPS that I recently acquired. That is, their energy efficiency is relative to the load. The above outlet draws 6W even without anything plugged in. Just as the UPS draws a mind-boggling 55-60W with no load. But plug in an 11W bulb to the outlet and it draws 13W. And at 100W load the UPS draws 120W or so. The same trend roughly continues until maximum theoretical efficiency. In the case of a UPS it can rarely climb above 90% and that sort of efficiency may require a 3-400W load – more than most modern PCs.

The Nexa wireless switches are a cost-efficient way of providing entry-level home automation and will be applied to some of the worst energy offenders that be hard to get to. And Nexa have proven to be easy to control using TellStick for instance. In terms of efficiency, these receivers are difficult to measure using ordinary home equipment, but I’ve been told they consume 2.5W just doing whatever they’re doing.

I previously bought a "standby killer" for the living room TV setup. "Unfortunately" the TV, DVD and set-top box were fairly efficient to begin with, so in this case I measured a slim saving of about 15W all in all (the set-top box being the biggest culprit). But everything counts, right. On the whole I’m pleased with the device so far. It worked out of the box, and I’ve only had to reset it once – probably due to an erroneous initial reading (the device measures the load in standby and remembers it as a threshold value). Nor have I had any problems with the connected appliances losing their program settings, at least not within a reasonable timeframe of a day or so. But that could be a real nuisance after a week or more of being cut off. Other than that possible caveat, the standby killer works admirably and most importantly adds no hoops to jump through to save power. Unless you count pressing a button on the remote twice. For appliances that use infrared communication and don’t suffer from long boot-up times, this is a perfect solution. As for energy consumption the device reportedly consumes less than 0.5W.

On a side note, I sometimes wonder what happened to the "smart homes" we heard so much about a decade ago? I would have thought we’d be living in the future by now. Why can’t someone come up with a Bluetooth 2.1 or 3.0 system of wireless nodes that actually work? A home network with an open and clearly defined standard that would seamlessly integrate with your headset, cell phone or computer AND turn on the lights. That would be great, thanks.