Smart strips.

Status
Not open for further replies.

76nemo

Senior Member
Location
Ogdensburg, NY
"Smart strips" were shown on the TV recently. They talked of electronics consuming idle/stand-by current. Can any of you show waveforms or PQ of the sort? I read in one article, that they can pay for themselves in 90 days. They must be speaking of a computer lab?????????

Anyone want to back this up?
 

rattus

Senior Member
My two dimes:

My two dimes:

They appear to be surge protectors which switch off in case of a severe voltage surge. Could be useful, but I have never had any problems with power surges. I think a standard surge protector would suffice in most if not all applications.

If the voltage is normal, they do nothing!
 

robbietan

Senior Member
Location
Antipolo City
The 'smart strips' I have seen are surge protectors. Some vendors attach power saving capabilities to them but the only savings I can think of are maintenance savings. That is, if you have a surge problem in your home.
 

GilbeSpark

Senior Member
Location
NC
Are these the ones that turn off the power to individual things plugged into the power strip that haven't been used in a given amount of time?
 

stickboy1375

Senior Member
Location
Litchfield, CT
Smart strips are basically power strips with a neat feature, when you plug a device into one of the outlets (the blue outlet) and turn that device on, the other remaining outlets on the device become energized, so for example, when you shut your PC off you could have all your other computer related devices turn on and off with your PC... and of course they also have built in surge protection.


B-SmartStripSmall200.gif
 

Smart $

Esteemed Member
Location
Ohio
stickboy1375 said:
Smart strips are basically power strips with a neat feature, when you plug a device into one of the outlets (the blue outlet) and turn that device on, the other remaining outlets on the device become energized, so for example, when you shut your PC off you could have all your other computer related devices turn on and off with your PC... and of course they also have built in surge protection.
FWIW, they don't always work, i.e. for computer peripherals. My former computer had a switched receptacle on the psu for powering peripherals. That 'puter died... so I built a new one... but I couldn't find a psu with a switched receptacle that put out the desired 1200W. So I bought a smart strip thinking that would serve the purpose... not :mad:

Apparently the trigger threshold was set to low to account for the pilot light in the psu power switch. I would have to switch the psu on/off manually every time booted and shut down for it to work. I could do that with a regular strip :rolleyes:

To solve the dilemma, I removed the circuit board out of the smart strip and put in a 12V relay and energized it with eSata power.

p13128a-2.jpg
 
Last edited:

ubergeekqueen

New member
From what I saw at Greenbuild this past November, these are being lauded as the energry-saving/Greening-of-the-office space Savior. In a site where there are multiple items on display in a retail store that are all plugged into chargers, this is a neat little item. Not sure if it pays itself off that soon, but when the price isn't much higher than a standard surge protector, it's a decent deal, and helps you head towards a 'greener' design. Wattstopper's claims to satisfy the new codes regarding occupancy switching, including the IECC 2006's 505.2.3. It's sure worth looking into further.
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Top