Customer Reviews

Smart Strip SCG3 Energy Saving Power Strip with Autoswitching Technology

5 star:		(48)
4 star:		(18)
3 star:		(7)
2 star:		(10)
1 star:		(7)

 

 

If you want something to help you save a few buck on your energy bill while also prolonging the life of Equipment, this is the tool for you.

I had an idea what this SmartStrip could do but i really wanted to see it for myself. This guy is as simple as it sounds and just as convient.

You have 1 outlet that you plug your switching device in. The switching device is the device that when you turn on or off turns everything else on or off. You also have 2 Always ON outlets (for DVR boxes or Broadband Modem, etc). And 4 "Controlled" outlets, 1 of which is an extra wide one. Now, the 1 outlet for the switching device is an Always ON outlet.

There is a little knob on the side for helping you tweek the switching setting that power off everything else when you put the main device into a low power state or off. Because some things draw power even when turned off so you may need to tweek it.

I bought this to try it out at work. If you want something to definitely help at home or at the office, this is perfect. At work, i had my Laptop at the switching port. I plugged the Monitor, the Speakers, the Desk Lamp, my cell chargers, any and all accessories into the controlled ports. I tweeked the knob on the side so that when I put my laptop into Standby, that it will also shut off everything else as well. To tweek it, you must put the computer into Standby mode and adjusted the knob until all the devices turn off.

This is great because the moment i shutdown the computer at night, it turns everything off and i don't have to forget about turning anything off. All that littles of electricity its saving is great.

You could easily use it at home. You can have it setup where your TV is the switch, your DVR is in the Always ON, your DVD, VCR, Game Consoles, Stereo, Home Theater, etc are all plugged into the Controlled Ports, So that the moment you turn the TV off, everything else turns off. No more nagging the kids to make sure they turned everything else, no need to round through remotes to make sure everything else is off.

The price is right as well, you are going to pay about the same price for something that also does about the same amount of Surge Protection, so why not get something that will save you in long running cost as well. It could pay for itself in the first year alone.

With my Kill-A-Watt, I discovered that my computer speakers use 15W even when they're not being used. I now have my monitor and speakers plugged into the Smart Strip, and have confirmed (with the Kill-A-Watt) that I'm saving some energy, and the Smart Strip will pay for itself in 7 months.

Also note that there are lots of models of Smart Strips. The "L" models are large (10); the "S" models are small (7). The "3" models are the simplest ones; the "4" models have a phone/fax/modem port; the "5" models have both a coax (tv) and phone/fax/modem port.

This product will benefit you two-fold. It will turn off your extra peripherals attached to your computer, TV, etc, and it will block plugged in electronics from using power when they are turned off. Any one of these benefits would make buying a product worthwhile, but the SmartStrip has both of these features combined into one package. The price is a bit expensive for a power strip, but keep in mind you will be saving much more on your power bill over its lifetime.

I did have to adjust the sensitivity of the strip to make sure it came on when I powered up my computer and turned off when it was shut down, but this took less than 30 seconds and was as simple as turning a knob.

Please note that this is the smaller version of the strip! An even larger one can be purchased with more plugs.

This seems like a terrific device to use when your controlling device draws a fairly steady amount of power, say, a desktop computer or a TV. However, it didn't work well for me and my low power computer. My computer is a Mac Mini G4, which is basically a laptop sans monitor, very low power usage. While using the computer, the power level drops so low that the device thinks it's off, and shuts down all the controlled outlets. I would expect that this would happen as well if you are using a laptop computer as the controlling device, as the laptop could start drawing power from the battery and nothing from the outlet.

The device does have a sensitivity switch, so you can set how sensitive it is to power drawn by the controlling device. This is a good thing, as many devices never really turn off completely, drawing a small amount of power to power a clock, for example. So, you do need a sensitivity switch so that you can set it to something higher than zero so that it will work properly with these devices. Unfortunately, even at the highest sensitivity setting, it is not sensitive enough for my computer.

I wasn't too sure about this when I bought it online but after fiddling with it at home it has been a breeze to use. Also, the rest of my family who normally wouldn't participate in this type of energy savings now participates just by shutting off the tv at night!

I would repurchase again.

A smart power strip is a great idea. I'm going around my house finding things that consume power when they're not in use, and making sure they're off when they're supposed to be off.

This smart power strip is supposed to be just the right thing, and if you can get it adjusted properly, it will work as advertised. But I had a lot of trouble with it. I first tried it with my TV setup, to turn off the amplifying antenna, digital converter box, Roku box, and TV when I'm not using the TV. I did this by plugging a lamp into the control socket. It was a low-power CFL lamp, using about 12 watts when on (and of course, zero when off), and I was unable to make the Smart Strip go on and off reliably. I tried two different bulbs with different power consumptions. After a dozen attempts to adjust the screw setting, I gave up.

In the end, I used a standard power strip to turn that TV stuff on and off, but it's less convenient than using the Smart Strip would have been.

But I persisted. I connected my PC to the Smart Strip unit, so it could turn off the LCDs and speakers when the computer was hibernating. After much tweaking and frustration, I was able to find a setting that worked for this very standard Dell computer. But it wasn't easy, and I was angry by the time it worked, and not confident that it would continue to work. I returned the unit to Amazon.

Instead, I bought an APC Power-Saving Essential Surgearrest power strip Apc Power-saving Essential Surgearrest 7 Outlet with tel 120V for about the same price. It worked on the PC the first time. It has no adjustments at all. No frustration and a big smile. I recommend the APC unit instead of this one.

One note: APC advises that anything taking more than about 15 watts when in the low-power state (sleep or hibernate) won't trigger their unit to shut off. This is a better arrangement, and caused no problems for me.

Setup was incredibly easy, just adjust the dial. It took less than 30 seconds. Now I'm able to turn off the Wii and Stereo when the TV is off, which will save enough electricity to pay for the Smart Strip in about 9 months.

I am using this product for my entertainment center which includes an HDTV, Tivo, network router, DVD player and Xbox 360. Using the control device allows me to shut the power off to my DVD player and Xbox 360 -- saving me about 15W of energy.

It probably won't affect my electric bill much, but it does make me feel good that I'm not wasting as much electricity. Plus, it's a lot more convenient than my old power strip behind the TV.

This is a review of the Smart Strip SCG3 / 049418906 Energy Saving Power Strip with Autoswitching Technology product offered by Amazon.com.

This product when plugged in with no load, uses virtually no power. In my home it is controlled by my TV set. The devices which power on and off (the controlled devices) include an Xbox 360 (Elite), PS3 (60 GB), a Wii and an 8 port Ethernet switch.

Using a Kill A Watt, my power savings vs not having this switch are about $2-$3 per month, depending on how long the set is on for. The longer the set is on (that my kids play) the less is saved. My electric rate per KWH is about 18 cents.

This device will pay for itself in 10-15 months using my configuration.

To know how long it will take to pay for itself in your home, you'll need a Kill A Watt or similar product, and will need to measure the power off energy consumption of the devices which will be turned off by this product.

In my opinion any product which pays for itself in under 2 years is a reasonable purchase.

If I had fewer devices controlled, or if they were different devices, the only way to tell if this would save enough energy to justify the cost is by using a Kill A Watt or similar device.

My suggestion is to take the $30 you'd spend on this, and purchase a Kill A Watt first, then you'll know the energy consumption of the appliances which this device will fully power down. You need to measure them in the off state to determine if this energy strip is viable for your situation.

I personally prefer the Kill A Watt 4460 as you can enter your energy cost, and it will tell your what an appliance costs to use per day, week, month or year.

Purchasing this strip without a measurement of energy use from the controlled devices, is making a guess, maybe an educated guess, about power savings.

Our devices are controlled by a 47" LCD TV, and no adjusting of sensitivity was required. My guess is any large appliance can control all smaller appliances on a circuit.

This appears to be a reasonable product to use when controlling devices linked to a TV or home Computer. It may have difficulty with some energy efficient laptops.

This item, sadly, is incompatible with my Dell laptop. Check with the manufacturer before buying is you use a Dell lapttop, it is also incompatible with my son's.