Tech Blog

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When I first saw Belkin’s Conserve line of products, I was impressed with how easy and useful they could be. Just looking around my place, gadgets are everywhere, and my office is just a disaster zone of wires and cables. If all of this is reflected in my hydro bill, then how can I get a better sense of what’s taking up so much juice?

The Conserve Insight Energy Monitor is a pretty basic device, and it doesn’t take much to figure out how to use it. The gist is to just plug it into an outlet, and then plug in any electronic device or appliance into it. From there, it can tell you how much wattage the device uses, how much it costs to power it per month or per year and what the carbon footprint is.

The default is based on the average U.S. electricity rate, but you can punch in the rate from your own bill to get a better reading. The numbers don’t lie, and they may open your eyes to just how much energy your computer or favourite lamp use up. Makes you think about unplugging chargers and other products when you’re not using them. On the other hand, it can also help you get a better sense of what your hydro bill might be in advance, though don’t expect a complete and accurate picture because you can’t use this thing on everything, like ceiling lights and heating/air conditioners, for example.

Some of the energy usage you pay for comes from gadgets in stand-by mode. That includes everything from HDTVs, game consoles, media players and Blu-ray players among others. Imagine being able to cut all that off when you’re not using them.

I’ve been using Belkin’s Conserve Smart AV is ideal for energy conservation surrounding your home theatre setup. Plug your TV into the green outlet, which acts as the master. When you turn your TV on, all the devices plugged into the other five outlets inside the green ring go on stand-by as well. Turn the TV off, and after 30 seconds, all power to those devices is cut off. The last two outlets are always on, which would be ideal for PVRs or routers.

I can’t say how much, but it’s definitely helped save me some money on hydro every month, especially since I’ve got all five green outlets filled with gizmos. You might want to consider these if you’re worried about how much energy you’re using.