Intelli Plug: Good idea or wasted?

[Zak33]

Intelliplug Energy Saving Plug

Hi guys

Looking at the amount of energy drained by peripherals, and my own PC when "off" (even with the rocker switch on the PSU to OFF) the things still use juice.

So I thought one of these would help. It's £15 in argos.

Plug it in, plug stuff into it, when master item is swtiched off, the others are too.

But the thing is..... and I might be wrong here....it's my PC that uses the most. When off. even with the rocker switch OFF, it uses 9W.
I am guessing this gaget doesn't turn THAT off if it's the master item? If so, how?

[Zak33]

and then there is these:
Argos - www.argos.co.uk

Once again, mster plug, plus 5 slaves, and two permanent (router for example)
Same rules?

And while the intelli plug claims is uses a timy current (0.4W) I cant find Masrterplug's statement on their use.

[moogle]

wouldn't work. pc draws 10 - 15w idle so how would we like use a master? I got a decent one on my pc, I have my monitor, pc, speakers and lamp plugged in, when I'm done I just press the off on the surge protector and bam it's all gone. Router is in a socket of it's own. best way would be to get a strip with it's individual on/off switches.

[Zak33]

Surge Protector...as a switch....you're a genius!

[beanbandit]

In my view Zak, they are nothing but a waste of money. If you can reach the mains switch, just turn that off. Its free then If you have to have something left on, then re-organise how things are plugged in, may take a bit of rewiring, but again its free.

Oh and that 9W of your PC in off mode, will still be drawn with an Intelliplug, after all it needs something to monitor, so its still going to waste you money in the long run.

[Zak33]

good points, and points well made.
The 9w draw on all 3 PC's was my query, and you're right, it will.

ok...ONWARD TO THE NEXT PLAN.

[TheAnimus]

in the money savnig thread i posted how i have a switch hidden on the underside of my table, just one flick and everything but the UPS goes off. Manually still have to switch of PC + monitor thou.

[moogle]

yep, if the mains plug is in a real awkward pos just get a decent surge protector or a power strip and then it'll be easier access.

[kidzer]

Yeah, I just turn off my surge protector at night aswell.

I rearranged a while ago so that PC/Monitor/Speakers/Laptop Charger are in the Surge Protector and are turned off at night.

ADSL Modem and Router/Switch are plugged into the wall directly so that if my PC is off, the sister can still use WiFi, ditto if I want to browse after I've turned this machine off I can do so with the laptop easily enough.

[Konan555]

As far as I could make out, the main use for an intelli plug would be more for user convenience than environmental reasons.

Now I remember the days when out PCs had a big mains switch to turn them on and off! AND they could switch off the power to monitor that was attached to them too! It wasn't hard to wire the pass-through to other peripherals (within reason) so they'd switch off when we flicked the switch on the front of the PC.

OK, so when we 'shut down' we had to actually wait and then push the switch ourselves. Well, with some true 1950s engineering we could get around that one. Just have a momentary mains switch to energise a relay which then latches the power on until a device on the motherboard flicks it back the other way.

I'm a genius. Save the enviroment! Bring back AT

[M0nkeyb0Y]

I use the intelliplug - powergen had a promotion on them a year or two ago - I find it really useful. It means I don't have to wait around whilst my PC shuts down. Once I've been in bed for a minute or two I hear the satisfying "thunk" of my subwoover turning off.

I used to just wait and switch off the surge protector... I guess I'm just lazy.

The major drawback (aside from the fact it costs money) is when I put my PC to sleep it occasionally switches the peripherals back on at random... And I'm startled in the night by "thunks" of the subwoofer.