Although that handy
Kill-A-Watt device might do a number on showing you just how much energy your
array of consoles and AV equipment is sucking down each time you power up, it won't do
much anything to stop the electrical bleeding. Enter Domia, which offers up a full range of Bye Bye Standby products to shut off power en masse to home or office electronics. Essentially, the lineup of products provides specialized, wirelessly-enabled Smart Socket middlemen that can connect to wireless toggle switches via your PC, a wall-mounted "Green Switch" button, a cordless remote, or even a voice recognizing microphone. By switching the channels on your sockets, you can power down up to four (or more, if using a power strip) devices at a time, and each allows you to manually override it if you decide to crank one or two back up. If you're curious about just how much loot you'll save by
powering down your pad whenever possible, Domia estimates a £40 ($79) savings "for a family of four," but for those of you already stingy with the light switch, the benefits could be marginal. Notably, this product appears to play nice with
UK-based power outlets only, and considering the British wishes to
outlaw standby buttons entirely, you may want to hold off of this here £29.99 ($59) purchase until the politics shake out.
posted Feb 2nd 2007 4:40AM
This Simply looks like a version based off of the X10 home automation systems already in use.
Yes its compatible with X10.
These are NOT X10 devices. They are RF controlled.
These are NOT X10 devices. They are RF controlled.
The government does have a point about useless standby modes. Why is it needed in a DVD player (for example)? I have to go to the device and physically place a DVD in to use it anyway...
Don't get me wrong, standby is useful on some devices (notably those that must still operate when in standby, such as PVRs) but for most it's just wasteful/lazy.
I like the compromise of having just one remote to turn everything (or selected devices) on/off at the mains, rather than each device needing its own standby mode unnecessarily.
Wouldn't this device need to draw power to wake-up instantly? Am I replacing one constant draw with a (hopefully) smaller draw?
The Domia web page makes the usual claims about TVs taking 7W when on standby, monitors taking 10W etc.
I have measured what mine take and think these numbers are vastly over-estimated. There's a danger that people who want to save money or reduce their carbon emissions will be misled.
Perhaps Engadget readers who have suitable meters would like to post what their stuff takes?
You'd be amazed. I measured a friend's Comcast DVR -- 16W in standby. His DLP TV also sucked down 20W in standby. Add in the receiver (5W), DVD player (2W) and you've got 40W. The stuff is in standby 16 hours a day.
16 (hours) * 365 (days) * (40/1000) * 0.137 (cost of a kWh in this part of MA) = $32 a year for standby.
Have a broadband modem (cable or DSL) and a router? My Motorola Surfboard, FVS318 router and ME103 AP suck down a collective 21W 24-hours a day. I'm requesting an updated model from Comcast (free of charge) that consumes only 2/3rds of the power (drops from 9W to 6W) and I may replace the router/AP with the new AirPort Extreme depending on power consumption.
The problem with X10 devices is that they themselves are power leaches. This attempt at a solution is only making the problem worse. Think people think
And how much power do you suppose these beasts use while monitoring the power line for that "on" signal?
The problem with x10 devices in my expericne is that ocasionally devices will switch themselves on or off wihtout intervention. I wouldn't put my PC on one of those. Peripherals yes, but not somehting that can suffer data loss.
Errant ons and offs are usually caused by electrical noise on the lines, or by your neighbors being on the same house code. You can solve the noise problem with inexpensive filters, and the neighbors problem by changing the house code. There are also ways to isolate your house from the neighbors if you want to use all house codes.
I've use X-10 extensively in my houses, and I've never see errant ons or offs. I don't think they are as common as ordinary power outages.
I don't know why this needs to be wireless. What that family needs is a power strip with a switch for each outlet on it, so that the individual devices can be turned on and off right there (probably by the back door to the garage).
In spite of a patent already on that sort of thing (found it on Google patent search), I haven't seen anything like that in a store.
I'd really just like to kill the stupid little whine my cell charger makes when it's done charging.
Um, ever heard of wireless X-10? There are X-10 RF compatible.
UK wall sockets already have on/off switches, so this seems kinda useless. or maybe i'm missing something.