Comments on: Save money and help the energy crisis.

By: Peytan

Peytan — Wed, 02 Apr 2008 18:13:11 +0000

Amen! Vampires are killing my budget and it’s time we get rid of them once and for all!

By: dd12101

dd12101 — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 02:02:06 +0000

This does work if done practically, I am a work at home consultant with at least 2 if not 4 PCs going at one time. I put timers on the DSL box, printer, PCs, and 2 fishtanks. The timers were set to ON from 6:00AM to 11 PM and I have noticed a considerable difference. Probably $50.00 to $75.00 a month. I am thinking about putting them on all 3 TVs throughtout the house also. I got the digital timers at Lowes for about $15.00 each. Small investment up front pays for itself in a month or two.

Of course it all depends on your usage, I have a family of four so I am constantly turning lights off, shutting down PCs, etc.

By: asdf

asdf — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 00:21:24 +0000

Maybe we should just turn off the fridge while we are at it

By: lajaw

lajaw — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 23:23:57 +0000

But your timer switch also uses electricity.

By: Brad P. Severance

Brad P. Severance — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 22:14:59 +0000

I use powerstrips with a trip on them, and just turn off the trip when I’m not using the devices. Similar concept.

By: uh

uh — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 21:40:15 +0000

it should take you maybe a minute to “program” them

most of them are 1 switch for every 3 minutes of the day. some have 1 switch for each hour of each day of the week. i cant imagine one taking longer than 5 minutes to set

By: Your Reader

Your Reader — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 21:01:59 +0000

Hey, thanks for the article.

How about this one … imagine a “smart” powerstrip that senses when you have switched on/off ONE of your many devices. When that one device changes state, the power strip automatically cuts or gives power to the other devices!! Great idea, right? Add in the standard surge protection, damaged equipment insurance, and large spaced outlets to fit your wall warts … and you have the SMARTSTRIP. search for it and read up, its a great product

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 20:51:11 +0000

you’ll end up spending more money buying timer switches than you’ll save. not to mention all the energy used to making one of those, and the timer switch itself will also use electricity.
I wound up with a lot of power strips that have a switch on them, so I have most everything plugged into those and just flip the switch.

By: Steve

Steve — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 20:32:05 +0000

If it’s a mechanical timer, don’t forget you lose the energy to drive the timer 24 hours a day; it may be more than the standby time you save. Actually, when I think about it, that even applys if you’re using an electronic timer…

By: Don

Don — Thu, 18 Oct 2007 20:28:22 +0000

But, wouldn’t the timers be consuming electricity? Especially if you used a remote/master system.