Tuesday, July 6, 2010

Belkin gets in to energy saving accessories in a big way

I've been holding off posting about belkin's products that are in their eco line because it seemed that the money you spent on the expensive products would be more than you could possibly save. However, they have now launched a competitor to the kill-a-watt and added a number of items to the line that I think are more reasonably priced. They also seem to be getting in to the space in a big way so maybe prices will get driven down.

Here's a link to their products at amazon Belkin Conserve products

Probably most interesting is the outlet with built in timer for only $9.99
You can set it to 1/2 hour, 3 hours or 6 hours. This way your phone can get charged without continuing to charge all night. Or as they put it (paraphrasing) you don't burn down your house with your curling iron.




Here's their kill-a-watt competitor:



It's more stylish, comes preloaded with average us electricity cost and does the total cost over time as well.

Their remote controlled power strip has been out for a while and seems a bit over priced to me. Which uses more resources this $30 strip or a $2 strip from ikea. Of course the belkin has a nice light switch looking control to help you to not have to walk over to the power strip to turn it off.




Finally they have an auto switched strip, that senses load on one of the outlets and turns the others off. They suggest having the tv in the sensor spot and turning off game consoles stereos etc when the tv is off. There's nothing new here but belkin has more style and marketing reach so maybe more people will start using these when they see them in costco or bestbuy





Anyway, I have no association with belkin and haven't actually used them myself so fair warning, just thought I'd mention them here.

Remember as we hit the summer in the northern hemisphere, the biggest energy saver your can easily do is use your air conditioning less. Get a wet towel and drape it on your forehead for your own personal swamp cooler :)

1 comment:

marianne said...

Good to see you're still sharing your helpful tips! Thanks :-)