XPost: alt.home.repair
A guy came by the house yesterday evening. I thought he was here to
slam me, sign me up with an alternate electricity provider against my
will. They do that here.
But instead he was giving out free energy saving things. He was from
BGE, formerly BG&E, Baltimore Gas and Electric. -- They had to get rid
of the & because researchers in California showed that it could cause
cancer.
He offered, free, and I think with installation included, water-limiting
shower heads, LED lightbulbs. and Tricklestar Advanced Power STrips.
I've looked a little on the Tricklestar webpage and the Amazon reviews
(the first ones that came up) and the same two things I didnt'
understand, I still don't.
This is tier 1, or model TS1104 7-outlet.
https://www.amazon.com/TrickleStar-TS1104-Outlet-1080-Joules/dp/B0B61ZCPK6/ref=sr_1_1_mod_primary_new
Sells for $27
https://tricklestar.com/pages/tier-1-advanced-powerstrips
1_ There is a slider switch for Threshold, low, medium, and high. I
think this is the threshold at which the built-in circuit breaker trips.
I asked him, Why not set it to high all the time. If I plugged it in, I
must want to use it, and if that puts me over the medium limit, that's
what I want. He said no, but if he were an EE he wouldn't be walking
around with a handtruck and boxes of lightbulbs.
So I'm asking you, What is the point of this?
2_ There are 2 outlets that are alwasys on, one that controls the
remaining 4, in that when it's using current, it powers on the other 4
and when it's not, they're not .
But what is suitable for being the control device? Don't most new
devices use current all the time? Isn't that the whole reason people
want to switch off the vampire current users? Are they saying even
devices that use current all the time will have a change in current
usage when "on" sufficient to be recognized by the strip, and thereby
turn off the remaining 4.
And what about the remaining 4 outlets? They will be turned off
entirely, and don't most new devices have to be somewhat on all the time
to preserve memory items? I have only one item that could be
considered "new" and it's a soundbar for a TV. I presume it remembers
its previous volume setting even when turned off, but if unplugged,
wouldn't it forget it? sds
The wrappter includes examples.
Always on would be a DVR or router or cable box or modem. Two of
those, or more with a trust cube tap from the 1940's.
For the Control Outles it suggests the TV or PC. (With so many
people using laptops now, don't they lose their charge if not plugged in
all the time? )
And for the switched items they suggest
a DVD player
printer, but my printer is wireless and in the other room.
gaming console without HDD for some reason
AV receiver
Misc TV/PC peripheral. I do have a pair of external speakers for
the desktop and they don't forget anything when unplugged. And I'll
admit I don't always turn them off when I leave the computer. They
don't use much when in use either, so is this the only place I can save
a little electricity?
The strips are nice in that two outlets are speced far enough away to
allow wall warts to be used.
And if surge protection is damaged, it cuts power to the whole thing.
Do other strips do that?
But they have no on/off switch in case you want to turn everything off.
Ironic, huh?
They do make some good-sounding products
https://tricklestar.com/pages/all-products including iiuc water heater
timers and dryer controllers to turn off the dryer when the clothes are
dry.
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