DIY Security Systems
When you receive your power bill, you wonder why the total keeps increasing every month even if you didn’t acquire any new appliances and the number of hours you put your lights and refrigerator on remaining the same. What is the possible solution? You can go for a smart power strip, which is a great energy-saving option. However, what is a smart power strip and why it’s one of the best safety products?
What is a Smart Power Strip?
A smart power strip or smart power bar is just the same with a regular power bar. The only difference in what is a smart power strip compared to the regular power bar is that the former’s circuitry is designed to monitor and control the power in each outlet in the strip. But then, both the smart power strip and the regular power bar are an option to prevent household appliances and electronics from wasting power while improving energy efficiency.
Learning More About Smart Power Strips
The smart power strip has standard-sized outlets with spaces in between enough to accommodate spaces for wide plugs. One unique feature of what is a smart power strip that each outlet has color codes around to help users configure the strip for maximized benefits of saving energy. As an example, a smart power strip automatically shuts off when it senses a period of inactivity. At the same time, the other outlets work together, making devices turned on and off as one.
What is a smart power strip’s three types of controlled outlets?
What Features Do Most Smart Power Strips Have?
Always ‘On’ Outlets.
As the name suggests, this is meant for devices or electronics. You always leave on like a modem or a satellite.
Main Outlets
These outlets are designed for basic appliances such as the TV or refrigerator.
Secondary Outlets
These are for devices that are secondary attachments to the main device like printers, scanners, and DVD players. Devices plugged in these outlets require the electronic device that connects to the main outlet to be turned on, too. For more energy-saving benefits, the smart power strip automatically turns off power to the devices connected to the secondary outlets once the main device is powered off.
What Are the Other Features of a Smart Power Strip?
These will depend on the smart power strip’s model and manufacturer. Some have added features like surge protection, ground, and surge status display, and the new ones have USB charging outlets.
If you want to purchase a smart power strip, take into consideration if there are additional requirements to fit your needs in your home, office or business areas such as telephone, modem, Ethernet surge protection, motion-sensing remotes, power cord length and if the smart power strip offers any warranty.
How Do Smart Power Strips Work?
If you put off the lights in your computer or TV room, do you notice some ‘eyes’ that seem to stare at you through the darkness? Those glowing, peering lights are like electronic vampires that stealthily sucks energy. A smart power strip helps you manage these energy thieves.
For traditional power strips, they are cheaper to maximize the use of the electrical outlets. Still, convenience-wise, it will turn that advantage into a disadvantage because you have the tendency to leave your electronics plugged in all the time.
This will only cause your devices to go on using power even if you do not use them. Printers, DVD players, and plasma TVs are appliances that have ‘standby’ modes that make them suck a significant amount of power without you realizing it. This power-draining event will cost you electricity wastage, causing power bills to get expensive and increases carbon output.
Smart power strips work by minimizing power usage by shutting down the power of devices in ‘standby’ mode. Find out more about Smart Power Strips.
The Tips for Using Smart Power Strips
- Learn which brand, style, and features are fit for your devices. Some types of smart power strips have different because it has methods to know whether a device is in ‘standby’ mode or not.
- Some smart power strips use USB cables that measure the power level of a computer and recognize when it is in ‘standby’ mode. But some computers still give power to the USB ports even if the power to the device itself is turned off. Having this kind of smart power strip will not be as energy-saving.
- If your smart power strip is not shutting off electronics that are in ‘standby’ mode, it’s likely broken.
Conclusion
What is a smart power strip? Having it as your best option for saving energy will help you save some serious amount of cash. Halting power vampires can be done by unplugging your gadgets and appliances. But with a smart power strip, you won’t have to do it continually. Considering a smart power strip for saving electricity will help you keep your energy bills from soaring high into Milky Way! Know more about Smart Bulbs here.