Be a smart stripper

Okay, I’ve been doing this for a while but I thought it was worth putting in here anyway. The smart strip is a current sensing power bar. They typically have three types of plug ins: always on, control, and controlled. The always on is for stuff that you don’t want to turn off – something like a PVR or digital cable box. The control slot is for the thing that will be on when you need any of the other items – your computer monitor or your television typically make sense here. The final type, the controlled slots, are for the things that you won’t use unless the controlling item is on – a blue ray player or printer for example.

What the smart strip does is shut down power to anything in the controlled slots when the thing in the control slot is turned off. Consequently, it cuts down on phantom power which is the power that many electronics draw even when they are off. How do you know something draws phantom power? Can you turn it on with a remote? Does it have a box on the power cord? Answering yes to either of those two means that it will draw phantom power which can be a significant drain on your electricity over the course of a year.

How much will you save? That depends but when I first made the switch I noticed a drop in my power bill. As someone who is already pretty conscious I thought that equaled success.

Many stores sell them including office supply stores, home improvement stores, and some general department stores, not to mention online retailers.