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Add to FavoritesDo power strips help save energy?
Does an outlet help save energy? No. It is simply a means of connecting an appliance to the power grid. Its like asking if house wiring saves energy. A power strip is essentially a collection of additional outlets. Therefore if simply plugged in and left alone it will not save energy. However, most power strips incorporate a power switch in their design. Will turning this switch off save energy? There is no simple yes or no answer. It depends on what you have plugged into it.
Let me explain. Suppose you have a mixer, a fan and a blender plugged into a single power strip. Each time you use one of these appliances you turn it off when you are finished with it. If all these appliances are off, will turning the power strip off save energy? No. Why? Because each of these appliances has a switch that disconnects it from the grid when you turn it off. Once it is disconnected you cannot disconnect it more. Off is off. Its like dying. Once your dead no one can kill you more.
But suppose you have a TV, computer and DVD player plugged into a power strip. When not in use you turn all three appliances off. Will switching the power strip off save energy? Yes. Why? Because these types of appliances have internal power supplies that only partially shut down when you turn them off. They never totally disconnect from the grid unless they are physically unplugged. A power strip switch is just like unplugging the cord when you turn it off. Therefore, turning off the switch disconnects everything from the grid and stops all energy use.
How do you know which appliances draw power when turned off? Here is a good rule of thumb. Any appliance that has a remote to turn it on never completely shuts down. It has to power a receiver to get the signal from the remote to power all the way up when you turn it on. Also, any device that has a transformer built into the cord (those black boxes that take the place of the cord end and feel warm to the touch) does not shut all the way down. That black box draws a small amount of power whenever it is plugged in, even if it is not connected to the device it powers. Therefore, if powering these types of devices, a power strip will save energy if you turn it off when not in use.
Learn more about this author, James Dreamer.
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No
A power strip is simply an electrical tool that allows the use of multiple appliances in an otherwise limited outlet. Additionally, many power strips provide "surge protection", which prevent anomalies in the electrical grid from shorting out your electronics. Considering this basic setup, it's simple to see that from a literal standpoint, power strips don't save electricity. In fact, and far more insidiously, power strips actually lead to increased electrical consumption.
Consider that the average person likes as much convenience as possible. Sure, someone might want ten speakers and a stereo hooked up in one room, but if it means paying hundreds or thousands of dollars to rewire that room, the setup will be thrown to the wayside. The inconvenience of having a limited number of outlets, in effect, precludes the consumption of unreasonable amounts of electricity.
Enter our hero, the Power Strip. Now that there is an extremely inexpensive and aesthetically pleasing solution to the consumer's wattage woes, electrical use goes up. What was once considered ridiculous is now as simple as jacking in your computer, printer, TV, DVD player, XBox, stereo system, and floor lamp! And that's just in one socket; why stop at 6 appliances when you could have 12? Why not find one more thing to round out your power strip, like a strobe light, or a toaster?
Power strips don't technically use more or less electricity than using appliances on their own. But what they do is encourage the consumer to use his/her outlets up to (or even exceeding) their maximum capacities. In this way, power strips allow people to chug through megawatts in the same way that the sandwich introduced a faster way of stuffing meat into one's stomach.
Learn more about this author, Jon Tran.
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