It’s well known that I am someone who loves gadgets and I’ve always had an interest in consumer electronics and computers.
As a result, I have quite a few toys around my house and, having children, I am also forever turning things off after them. The biggest areas of forgetfulness being the entertainment system and their computer, both often left on long after the play has stopped.
They are getting better though, remembering to turn off the TV after watching but many an evening I have come home to find the house in darkness but the lounge room faintly lit by the glow coming from the display on the amplifier.
On the weekend I was in the hardware shop and was wandering through the electrical section looking for something that would allow me to turn off all the power to the various componants attached to the television but I didn’t expect to find something as cool as this..
A powerboard with a master socket and four slave sockets which, when power is cut to the main one (ie. by turning the device attached off) the slave ones also lose their power.
Genius!
It was market as a “green” device designed to save you around $70 a year based on shutting down items that normally have a standby mode, such as audio visual equipment but conceivably it’s going to save more than that because, once set up it shuts down all the equipment that forgetful people leave when they turn the TV off.
I have the TV now plugged into the master socket and when it goes onto standby mode it shuts off power to everything else.
Now.. to get them to turn their computer off!
