Customer Reviews

Belkin BG108000-04 Conserve Energy-Saving Surge Strip

5 star:		(66)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(11)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(11)

 

 

Excellent product, push the remote transmitter button and the surge protector switches off. Push it again and the surge protecter turns on. Will definitely save electricity by cutting power to devices that are always on standby.

Only problem with the unit I received was that initially the remote switch would not turn the surge protector on. I thought that I might have to return it, until I checked the frequency settings for the remote switch and the surge protector. Switched them to match and the unit worked like a charm. It seems that the factory set settings did not match.

This highlighted a key feature of this unit. You can use one remote switch to control your entertainment system's surge protector, and a seperate remote switch to control your PC system's surge protector, OR you can use one remote to control two surge protectors.

Length:: 1:25 Mins

Studies suggest that 5% of America's power usage is consumed up by "phantom load", when devices that you turned off continue to consume at least some electricity. Turning power strips off cuts off "vampire" devices and prevents them from using electricity, but I tend to leave my power strips on because they're hidden under a desk or behind furniture or sometimes even in a different room.

That's where the Belkin Conserve power strip comes in, offering a convenient way to turn your power strips off with a remote switch that you can mount on top of your desk, near your TV couch, or by a light switch. You can even configure a single switch to power off multiple power strips, or just have each strip operate on its own frequency with its own switch.

I've been using my Conserve for about two months, and it's worked flawlessly the entire time. I even tested how well it shut the power to my devices off and, sure enough, my Kill A Watt instrument showed that power usage dropped to near 0 watts. What impressed me most about that number is how little power the Conserve apparently uses waiting for a signal from the switch.

In my case, I ran the numbers, and using my Belkin Conserve will more than pay for itself within the first year of use, and save me hundreds of dollars over my equipment's lifetime.

If you have a situation where you need a power strip in an out of the way place, then buy this product! It's only marginally more expensive than other power strips, and chances are that you'll make up the price difference within only a few months of use.

The Belkin Conserve is one of my biggest recommendations on Amazon.

Follow Up: FYI to those concerned about the remote battery, I've been using for about six months and the battery original battery still works! Also, as others noted, the battery is easy to find in stores and is as easily replaced as TV remote batteries are.

So I got one of these and within the first month I saw a $50 reduction in my power bill. Seriously!

It all started after I got a power meter and started going crazy to find what was sucking power around my house. My power bills where at 100+ and it wasn't making any since. So I started measuring and found out that my entertainment center was eating 80 - 85 Watts of power when it was OFF! Now everything I have didn't exactly cut off and turns out my Sharp Aquos was eating the most power off.

Devices OFF/suspend Watts (estimating from memory)
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Sharp Aquos 40
Wii 5
Apple TV 12
Popcorn Hour 15
Wireless Bridge 10
Oppo DVD player 1
Reciever 5

Now the Apple TV & Popcorn Hour actually never really turn off. Also no way to really power off the wireless bridge. I started pulling the power for the surge protector, but this was a pain to unplug and replug in every time. Most of the time I just left it plugged in.

Then I saw this! I got and it's so worth the money. Makes it as easy as flipping a switch.

One thing you have to get used to with the remote switch is you can't just flip it like a light switch, you have to press down to assert you are turning it on or off. I think this could be a safety feature to ensure that if someone leans against it it will not power everything on or off. Would be bad if your in the middle of a big game and someone leans against it and turns everything off.

It does though have 2 "always" on ports that do not get cut off. For devices like DVRs or routers.

Yes highly recommend. The wireless remote makes it simple and easy to completely shutdown what you want and not have anymore devices eating electricity when your not using them. Paid for itself in the first month.

The remote is a great idea. I have tons of music equipment that does not have an 'off' state and can easily be turned off w/the remote now!

Re: the "non standard battery" from some reviewers; the battery is a STANDARD and NON-PROPRIETARY 12 volt A23. They are SUPER cheap and can be picked up at your local hardware store, some larger grocery stores, and even a few local convenience stores for less than 2 bucks-- they will last a long time (longer than the one it came with for sure).

Kudos to Belkin for this product!

I bought the Belkin Surge Protector for two reasons: One was to protect all my TV equipment from electrical surges (like lightning): and, second, to enable me to shut my whole system down, and quit using "ghost power" for 18 or so hours a day.

The Belkin has 4 plug-ins for elements you want to shut down completely with it's remote, and 2 plug-ins for elements like my HD box, which I prefer to always have on, which saves rebooting every day.

The Belkin works as advertised, and is saving, on two TV sets, a combined 36 hours a day of "ghost power". The remote is effective at 15 feet, and just takes a push on one of it's two buttons to activate of deactivate the whole system. I don't know how much electricity I'm saving, but I know two TV systems are protected from power surges, and I'm no longer using power to have both sets on "standby" all day and night. A good buy.

I have a guest room that I rarely use but that is full of electronics that consume power even while on standby (most electronics nowadays never really go off). I saw a significant drop in my electricity usage in my next bill. I was so impressed I purchased another one and I'm looking for places to put more of them. By the way, you can set them on different channels so they work independently or on the same channel so no matter what control you it will cut the power to all selected appliances.

Bear in mind that the product only works with included RF remote. The RF provides excellent coverage even without a line of sight but I think than an optional remote infrared eye would greatly increase the usability and value of the product. This will allow users to program their remote control to turn the power on and off automatically as they use their appliances. This will result not only on greater convenience (I often forget to flick the switch on before attempting to use the tv remote) but also will result in greater energy savings (as you will use it always instead of just at night or before going to work). Despite my minor quibbles I highly recommend this product.

When I got this product, I thought the battery didn't work because the remote didn't work. It was some weird size (A25 or something), but I found it in the electronics section. When I replaced the battery, it still didn't work. I called customer service and was told to reconfigure the code shared between the power strip and the remote. I had it set on 1-0-0 on them both and was told to change them to 0-1-0. It worked. And now I love it.

Over the last few years, the Green movement has swept across the United States. While people may be skeptical of the existence of anthropomorphic climate change or of the finiteness of oil, there is no doubt that "going Green" has a degree of motivational leverage in that it saves people and businesses money. Regardless of whether the source of the Green movement's newfound impetus is moral or savings-driven, products like these have seen a steady climb in popularity.

As a recent student of psychology, one important lesson that I've learned, and that you should realize, is that the level of wastefulness in the United States can be attributed to not one source, but millions of tiny sources: the sum of millions of citizens' everyday actions. Influencing these actions on a behavioral level can have a profound effect on, for example, the total power consumption within a town, city, or country.

Here's where products such as the Belkin Conserve Energy Saving Surge Strip play an important role. It's common sense, as well as supported by psychological study, that making energy-saving actions more accessible increases their frequency. Before buying this product, I had to climb under my desk to switch the power switch on my old power switch. On a number of occasions, I didn't want to bother because this is a pain, especially when I'm in a rush. Sounds silly, right? A mere two seconds and a few calories burned were "too much," leading to an aversion that stopped me from turning off the strip.

The Belkin Energy Saving Surge Strip makes it easy, quick, and painless to cut power to my devices. As I try to do in my reviews, I'd like to give you a brief profile of my use of this product. It helps with perspective.

Devices connected:
- Custom-built PC with a 460W power supply: AMD Phenom II 555 3.2 GHZ, 4 GB 1600 DDR3, etc.
- Two 19" LCD widescreen monitors
- Xbox 360
- Toaster style HDD dock
- Altec Lansing 2.1 speakers

When are these devices in use?
- Weekdays: 6:30 PM to 11:30 PM
- Weekends: 11 AM to 11:30 PM
- Never in use while I'm sleeping or at work, unless I'm running something on my PC (rare)

I don't know a whole lot about power and electricity, but I'm confident that the PC, Xbox 360, monitors, and speakers likely draw a decent amount of power in standby. The 360 alone would lead me to cut power to it while I'm sleeping or at work.

Using the Belkin Energy Saving Surge Strip has been relatively unproblematic for me. I used the mounting piece to place the wireless switch right next to my light switch so that when I leave for work in the morning or go to sleep at night, I switch it off with my light switch. The switch is roughly 10' from the surge protector in this position, and it successfully switches the device around 99% of the time. I have had two or three occurrences where the switch would not power on/off the surge protector. Being a photographer, I use radio remotes to trigger flashes, and for the price of this unit that's a pretty good hit percentage.

I haven't had many problems with the surge protector itself, since most of my devices don't have huge converters or the like on the plugs. You may have problems with large plugs blocking adjacent outlets. The picture depicting in the unit accurately depicts the outlet spacing, so you can make your judgment based on that.
That's about it. I hope I didn't ramble too much. In summary (with a couple brief additions)...

PROS:
+ Promotes energy-saving behavior by making the surge protector switch accessible
+ Remote has a high success rate triggering the surge protector from 10 feet away
+ Mounting hardware quick and painless, allows remote to be mounted next to other switches
+ Remote switch can be removed from its mount-able "housing"

CONS:
- Not cheap, but it has features to back up the price
- Remote switch is a little big and clunky, must apply a decent amount force to switch it

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Update: October 17, 2010.

It's been a little over 6 months since I wrote the original writeup of Belkin's Conserve Surge Strip. Nothing much has changed. I did figure out what causes the wireless switch to fail to trigger the power strip. When you press the switch, the piece of plastic that moves will make a clicking sound as it moves into its depressed state. Every now and then, that clicking sound will occur without the plastic actually triggering whatever button is underneath it that sends the signal to turn the strip on or off. To trigger the strip, you just push down on the switch again until it shuts off/on the strip.

Another thing to note: I think I may have broken my Altec Lansing 2.1 speakers using this strip. I had been cutting the speakers' power without shutting them off properly, and I don't think they liked that. The other day, they just stopped working. They turn on and all that but they will not produce sound from any input. I cannot say there's a causal relationship here, but just be careful what type of devices (and the way in which you shut them off) you use with the strip.

Works exactly as advertised.

I have my entire home theater/gaming setup hooked into to this. DVR/Cable Box is hooked into the "always on" outlet and everything else into the switchable outlets (AV receiver, Blu-Ray player, XBox, Wireless bridge, subwoofer).

When I'm ready to watch something I push the surge strip's switch from across the room and everything attached to the switchable outlets is provided power (stand-by power - as if plugged into the wall). I turn on what I need and, when I'm all done, I turn all of the equipment switches off (as I would normally) and then push the surge protector switch off from the comfort of my couch 15 feet away. The surge protector turns off everything so nothing is using standby power while not in use.

Worked right out of the box the first time - no adjustments needed to be made.

Definitely recommend.

Excellent product.Remote works well.A little pricey but seems to be
well worth the expense.