Do you have an area of your house that has a lot of energy hogging items plugged in? For us, our TV power consumption is a problem, not because we use it all the time, but because it is plugged in all the time. Most folks do have places like that, where they have many things plugged in, but those things are not in constant use.

And so they get a power strip, both out of necessity to have more plugs available, and because they tell themselves that they will be able to turn everything off easily and save electricity that way.

But they never do turn everything off, do they? I can tell you that we don’t! But we have a reason! In our living room, we’d love to unplug our television, Wii, speakers and DVD player, but if we were to do so, we’d also be unplugging our router which keeps us connected to the internet. For people my age, cutting that off would be like cutting off the oxygen supply in the house. I’m only sort of kidding.

Cutting Our TV Power Consumption

This is why I LOVE the Smart Strip SCG3, as it is specifically designed for areas where most things can be “unplugged” for much of the day, but at least 1 thing needs to remain plugged in at all times. You can actually do that with this strip all with the push of a button. Check this out:

We are plugging in our television to the control outlet. This is where you want to put the primary device that you want to be able to “unplug” without actually unplugging it.

We are putting our router in the constant hot outlet. This is where you want to put things that should never be unplugged. Perhaps in some homes this would be where the computer tower plug goes.

And we are putting all of our television accessories in the green outlet. This space is for anything that is fine to be without power any time the control outlet is without power.

The demonstration light bulbs I have show you where the power is going when everything is turned on here. Everyone is getting the juice!

 

Now see what happens when I “unplug” the control panel:

 

With one simple flip of the switch, I’ll be able to have my TV, Wii, DVD player and speaker system stop draining power, yet have my router keep going. This is SO nice!!!!

If you have run into the same problem as me, where you thought a power strip could help you save energy only to discover that you have to leave it on all the time because of one or two items that need to be on at all times, this is the answer! The device retails for $29.95 but can also be purchased on Amazon for $24.60 and will likely pay for itself in a year thanks to all the standby energy you stop using! Bits Limited, the company behind this smart strip, has an entire line of surge protectors “with brains.” There’s something there for everyone, so be sure to check them out!

I received a complimentary product for review purposes. All thoughts and opinions expressed here are strictly my own. This post may contain affiliate links.