Go green with crafty OneClick money-saving devices

We're not great fans of arstechnica (no, let's not get into why) but a recent thought-provoking article by Nate Anderson caught our eye and seemed worth a mention while we're still in green mode following last week's news of VIA's world-wide computing initiative to reduce carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions - see this HEXUS.opinion, VIA Carbon Free Computing - back it or copy it but don't knock it!

In his article, Nate highlights the stupid amounts of energy that are wasted around the clock by plug-mounted and in-line power supplies and by devices that, even when turned off, still suck in the watts in standby mode.

The amount of unnecessary power consumed in any one home isn't going to break the bank - Nate estimates his own annual savings would be just $24.44 a year. This was based on turning off 15 offenders he found in his own home and reducing his annual energy usage by 394 kilowatt-hours.

But add up all the homes and offices where juice goes to waste 24/7 and you can see that the potential savings world-wide are massive and could significantly reduce the amount of C0₂ produced in energy generation at power stations.

Without in any way wishing to criticise - because Nate's article is well worth reading - one thing he doesn't mention is how you might reduce unnecessary power usage without the hassle of unplugging or switching off at the mains a whole bunch of products.

Perhaps, though, that's because he's not writing primarily for a UK audience and thus hasn't heard of the clever little gadgets that OneClick produces. These are "intelligent" multi-socket power adaptors that remove power from every appliance plugged into them 10 secs after the 'primary' appliance is switched off.

Two power-saving gadgets are offered. One is a £30 trailing six-socket model, the IMP (Intelligent Mains Panel). The other, which you might wrongly think is less useful, because it has fewer sockets, is the newer plug-mounted three-socket IntelliPlug, which, at £17, virtually halves the price of entry.

The IMP lets you directly connect five slave devices, plus the primary, while the count is two and one for the IntelliPlug. However, in each case, though this isn't made clear on OneClick's site, the gadget can control extra devices, using vanilla extension leads plugged into the slave sockets. The only limit is that the total power doesn't exceed 13A. Each has built-in anti-surge protection and, with the IMP, that extends via a pass through to the phone line as well.

Take one of our busier desktop PCs as an example of how you'd use an IMP or IntelliPlug. The PC itself has to be plugged into the primary socket and everything else into the slaves.

Turning off the computer would not only eliminate its usual wasteful standby power consumption but also the energy typically wasted while the PC is off by all connected devices - in our case a monitor, speakers, two printers, an external DVD burner, a USB hub, a FireWire hub, two external FireWire hard disk drives and a Skype USB telephone adaptor!

Newest OneClick power-saver is the crafty little IntelliPlug

It just so happens that each of the peripherals connected to our PC, apart from the monitor and one of the disk drives, requires its own dedicated external power supply. These eat up juice and are wearing out all the while they're receiving power, even if not connected to the peripherals they're driving. Rightly or wrongly, we also worry that such adaptors constitute a potential fire hazard if they're powered up 24/7.

Moving over into the living room, a Sky receiver is the primary device, when, elsewhere, it might be a Freeview PVR such as the recently reviewed Evesham PVR160.

Turning off that receiver would also cut out the power being wasted by the TV set, VCR, Scart-switcher box and network media player. Things are complicated by the fact that there's a connected AV amp that also handles a hi-fi system so, logically, that side would have to be controlled by a separate OneClick device.

When we looked around the house - and ignoring the other PCs in the office - we realised that similar scenarios to those above were being played out in two bedrooms where there are PCs and audio systems. The total number of wasteful devices that could be tamed is quite staggering and makes Nate's home look like a paragon of green virtue.

Thoughts on matters green? Be pleased to hear 'em in this thread in the HEXUS.lifestyle.news forum.