Remote-Outlet

Tag Archive: energy saving

Works Great And As Expected

The remotes works exactly as expected. Since I have an office and just work at home at night and on the weekends, I wanted an easy way to completely shutdown my home monitor, printer, and ext hard drives when I am not using them. This worked great. It costs $30 on Amazon and $35 at my local Home Depot. Unless you have Prime shipping, it is probably not worth buying online if you have a local Home Depot or Lowes.

I’m one of those people that switch off their power strip/surge protectors; when seated at my desk I only need to lean a few inches (maybe a foot at most) towards the floor to knock the green-lit selector into the off position.

My Enercell worked fine; however, while purchasing beginning-of-the-year crap, I decided to buy a surge protector with a wall insert that was flush with the wall rather than a protrusion (note: yes I know that last part wasn’t exactly technical), and was tempted by the promise of being able to ‘manage [my] power use via remote control’.

These are not the ho-hum benefit statements of yore; Belkin is promising, in effect, to add seconds (possibly ten seconds on aggregate) to my life. And remember kids, we are ALL selling convenience…

…and so I bought it, and it screamed from some state in the interior of this country (with the other crap for the year that is now upon us) to solve the “energy cliff” which I was so precariously teetering off of. I unplugged everything, rewired it all into the Belkin, and like Link holding up the Master Sword, held the remote above my head and clicked.(!)

And it didn’t bloody work. I repeatedly clicked it, and it repeatedly didn’t work.

I unplugged it all, plugged everything back into the Enercell, and started reading the manual. And then I logged back onto Amazon to read the reviews, somewhat like your doing now (only somwhat because you are actually reading an unboxing epic), when I noticed in the preview pics that the remote was mounted on the wall.

In order for it to be mounted on the wall, there would have to be a wall mount. But there was none in the box! They denied me a wall mount! I was certain that words would be exchanged with a Belkin customer service representative!

But nay! Upon closer inspection, I noticed the other pics with the remote out of the wall mount…and realized it came shipped inside of the wall mount. It was like studying epistemology for the first time, all over again.

Quite frankly, whatever time would have been saved by purchasing the Belkin Conserve Switch Energy-Saving Surge Protector with Remote has been spent writing this review. Buy it, get what you expected, and always remember friends…

November 10, 2013 Outlet, , , , 0 Read more >

Cut Your Energy Bill!!

It’s all buried behind the entertainment system. You do have to push relatively hard on the switch to ensure it turns on/off, but otherwise functions very well. Kills 126 watts (Killawatt used for testing) of idle power draw from the six components hooked up to it. A couple of KW a day at 30 cents a KW… it’ll pay for itself in just a few months.

We had a lamp in the corner of the room that we liked to turn on to add light to the room but you would have to reach over a couch to turn it on. We hooked it up to this and put the switch by the other light switch and it works great. Saves us some time and effort turning it on and off. I also like that it has constant on outlets for things you don’t want controlled by the remote. I wish i would have bought a few more while they were on sale.

The remote switches were very easy to set up with a different configuration for each computer (it took about 45 seconds to reset the configuration so each remote switch would work only one system). Switching on and off is absolutely as simple as it gets. This is a winner if you want to switch off your electronics when not using them to save electricity.

You know, almost every single product now have a so-called “idle” mode and that’s where the energy and money are wasted. I have my router and modem plugged in the always-on outlet, along with my TV, PS3, sound system plugged-in the “Remote-Switched Outlets”. I’ve seen some people here mention about the remote not working, or whatsoever problem with it.

Here I got some little tricks for you:

I believe this remote would put itself into “idle” mode, therefore, if you simply just switch on and off, it might not work all the way you want. So, I recommend you press the same side down first, before you switch it to the other side.

Sounds complicated? here’s an example:

If your remote is on “I” (which means on, closed circuit), and you want to turn it off. You simply press down on “I” first (in my words- to wake the remote up), then switch it to “O” (off), vice versa.

I love this surge protector and am STRONGLY RECOMMEND it. Great product!!

So far they are working pretty good. Occasionally they do require a firmer or repeated pressing to go on or off but after several months so far it still works pretty good. Id recommend it. If it breaks I will update with an appropriate response.

Running one of these power strips on every TV and computer in the house

will easily knock $25 – $35 dollars a month off of your electric bill! Why pay the utility company for the time you NOT using your devices? In these days when utility rates

are jacked up so unjustifiably high you have do everything you can from being raped the by utility companies! These strips are wall mountable, have cable management hooks and the remote switch can be taped or screwed to the wall and should be placed next to a light switch to make sure it gets used. Bottom line it’s a little pricey but it will definitely pay for it shelf in 1-2 months time!

November 7, 2013 Outlet, , , , 0 Read more >

Great Energy Saving Surge Protector

This unit also has a remote control that I love. I have the items that I do not use all the time when I watch TV connected to the plugs that are controlled by the remote, so they are not powered up until I need them. The TV and U-verse box are plugged into the two receptacles that have power to them all the time, but all eight are protected.

In addition I have a networked file server in the same location that I didn’t want to shut down, so the power center was perfect for my needs!

Slim flat design makes it fit easily under things like cabinet or shelves. Widely spaced sockets accommodate brick style power supplies for devices like modems & routers. Clearly marked and laid out design allows easy set up and use.

I have a desktop setup in a room different from where my networking devices are housed, so I wanted to be able to shut down my internet/router if there was ever a need to (i.e. connection or system outage) without having to go to another room and then unplug each device and then reconnect them. I attached the remote switch to the desk in an out of the way location so it wouldn’t be mistakenly switched. It’s about 30 feet from the power strip and I’ve had it over 2 years, and it works perfectly. Granted I don’t switch things off an on with it constantly, just whenever it’s needed. So that maybe why I haven’t had any problems with the remote switch like others have had. I can highly recommend this for any kind of remote power switching for all kind of uses and would purchase another with out hesitation as the experience I’ve had so far has been great!

Which can be a pain if it is buried behind your desk and not easy to reach. But it works as expected and I figure it will pay for itself pretty quickly now that I am eliminating vampire power from a lot of computers and electronics.

The power strip was delivered on time in Amazon’s hassle-free packaging. The battery in the remote unit was dead so I had to replace it. The battery is commonly found in Staples, Office Depot, Radio Shack, etc. for $2-3.

The power strip itself seems to be well made. The build quality of the remote however could be better. The mechanism inside the remote provides for a cheap “click” feel. The remote does have an LED that is illuminated when it’s sending a signal to the power strip which is a nice.

Overall the remote and power strip works as advertised. I bought this item because I have a room which does not have a switch-controlled outlet. This power strip allows me to turn on and off a floor lamp when I enter/exit the room.

November 4, 2013 Outlet, , , , 0 Read more >