These days, everyone is looking for different ways that they can save money and help the environment. That’s why I love the new Conserve power strip from Belkin. It will help you save energy and money. Let’s take a closer look…
Hardware Specifications
10 outlets – 8 switchable / 2 always-on
Continuous duty electrical rating: 125V/15A/60Hz/1875W
Coax protection
1000 Joules of surge protection
Clamping voltage: UL1449 330V
Faulty Ground Indicator
Maximum Spike Current: 72,0000A H-N 24,000A, H-G 24,000A, N-G 24,000A
EMI/RFI Noise Filtration: 150kHz – 100MHz up to 58dB
SIZE (REMOTE ONLY) 4″ X 1.25″ X 12.875
Remote switch battery type: A23 (12V) Alkaline or eq.
Package Contents
10 outlet strip
Instructions
Wireless remote
Wall plate
Available in 10 and 8 outlet versions, the Conserve power strip gives you a way to keep two devices always powered on, while the others can be turned completely off with a flip of a wireless switch.
The power strip is made of rugged White plastic, and has 10 outlets separated into three groups. Towards the top of the strip near the Belkin logo, there are two outlets that remain powered even when the other outlets are switched off. A small LED above these two outlets let you know if the strip isn’t properly grounded. Two LEDs between the two outlets glow in Green to show that they are powered on.
A small button below the always-on outlets allows you to manually toggle power to the remaining eight switchable outlets.
The outlets are the grounded three prong variety.
A slide cover allows you to close off individual outlets if desired.
If you use the Conserve power strip with your home theater setup, you can protect your satellite or cable equipment from surges by using the coax connectors. You have to supply your own cables though…
By itself, the Belkin Conserve is just a nice 10 outlet surge protected power strip. What makes it really cool is the wireless remote control that you can use to completely kill the power to eight of the outlets. If you’re thinking “So what Julie, I already turn off all my electronics when they aren’t being used. What’s the big deal?” Well, the thing is that even when you turn off some appliances and electronics, they still use power. This is especially true for those AC adapter power bricks. Even if you just use them to charge a device, when you unplug that device, the AC adapter is still using some power. The Belkin Conserve will completely power off the outlets so that anything plugged into them will not use any power at all.
I set mine up with my home theater devices. In the always-on outlets, I plugged in my DirecTV DVR and my XtremeMac XtremeHD 4 To 1 HDMI Switcher box. In the eight switchable outlets, I plugged in my TV, DVD and audio equipment.
Setup was a snap. I just unplugged everything from my old power strip and then plugged them into the Conserve. The first time I used the wireless remote switch to turn things back on, it didn’t do anything. If I pressed the little manual switch on the power strip, it toggled power fine – so I was confused for awhile till I noticed a channel select switch on the back of the power strip.
This switch is there to allow you to pair the wireless remote to the strip. According to the instructions, you shouldn’t need to change the settings unless you are using more than one Conserve power strip. But for some reason, mine would not work in the default setting, so I had to change one of the dip switches and then match that configuration on a second set of switches on the remote. Once I did that, the remote worked perfect. Yay!
I placed the switch right beside the light switch for my basement, so now when I am finished watching TV for the night, I can flip both switches and know that I’m saving both money and energy. I really like this product and am thinking about buying a second one to use in my office for things like my printer, speakers, and other devices that don’t need to be sipping power 24hrs a day when they aren’t really being used. Thanks Belkin!
Product Information
| Price: | 59.99 |
| Manufacturer: | Belkin |
| Pros: |
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| Cons: |
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that is a really cool green power strip
I just found a discount from Belkin for the Conserve power-saving surge protector. Use the coupon code (save3108) at http://www.belkin.com/conservenow to receive $10 OFF + FREE SHIPPING.
B Green:
Nice find!!! :o)
Is it available for European systems (220V, different Plugs) as well?
Thanks
Just bought two units (one for me and one for my eco-friendly uncle) at http://www.belkin.com/conservenow with the discount!!! Can’t wait to try it out. Great find, B Green, $10 OFF + FREE SHIPPING was a plus. I love the switch idea…simple and elegant design.
Wilhelm:
I just heard back from my contact at Belkin with regards to your question. Unfortunately, the Conserve is not available for European systems…
This product is not as perfect a solution as you might think: what if you had a power strip with a “control” outlet whose activity dictated when the other outlets on the strip were enabled? The threshold of the control outlet would be adjustable.
For instance, picture a monitor plugged into the control outlet, and all the wall warts and connections for printers and other devices that require human interaction to be useful plugged into the slave outlets: turning off the monitor would automatically turn off all the other devices! This could even work for the power-saving mode of a monitor, such that if you walked off to get a snack or go to the bathroom for a while, the monitor would power down to save power and power down all the other connected devices as well. Another sceanario: a component stereo system; connect the receiver/amp to the control outlet, and everything else to the slave outlets; now when the receiver is turned on or off, so too are all the other components.
Guess what? Such a power strip existed over a decade ago, and could be found at Radio Shack, of all places. I have two of them myself.
The fact that Belkin is able to sell this dumbed-down product is purely due to ignorance of better alternatives on the part of consumers.
5 jake willow 11.21.08 at 9:43 pm
Just bought two units (one for me and one for my eco-friendly uncle) at http://www.belkin.com/conservenow with the discount!!! Can’t wait to try it out. Great find, B Green, $10 OFF + FREE SHIPPING was a plus. I love the switch idea…simple and elegant design.
Thanks so much for the tip on the “deal”, I was happy to find out that they discount more than one.
MikeyK
North Florida
Michael:
Be sure and let us know what you think of them after you have a chance to use them for awhile. 🙂
I just set up some of these for my mother-in-law on each of her TVs. It’s really cool that all devices can be coded to the same frequency because now she can depower all TVs (and associated control box/media player thingies) in her house with a single switch.
Well almost. Her basement must be metal shielded because the Conserve in the basement seems to need the remote to have a line of sight.
One thing that I do wonder about these devices is how much money they actually save. How much power does the receiver on the power strip use compared to 3-4 “vampire” devices?
I’m picking one of these up this week.
@Daniel You’ll love it! 🙂
Vulcan Tourist,
The Smart Strip that you are talking about is still a “power vampire” because your control device is still using power.
Most would use their computer or TV to be the control device.
Powering off the computer would shut down power to all other devices. Thats great but the computer is still using the same power while shut down. the idea behind this device which I really like is nothing is using power when you turn it off. I would however like to see a model that is wired and does not rely on wireless technology because I would like to use them in my office in all of my cubes so when an employee leaves they simply turn off the switch located on their desk without having to climb under the desk. So yes it is dumbed down as you put it but there is a reason and an application for it.
Thinking of getting it, but there is no documentation anywhere that I’ve found that indicates how much power IT – the power strip – users to run the little circuit board that responds to the RF commands from the remote. Marginal I’m sure, but what? 1? 2? 4W? more?
Can it use with 220v outlet?
P.S.I intend to use it in Thailand