The TrickleStar 12 Outlet Advanced PowerStrip is a handy power strip with surge protect for electronics, televisions and telephone that lets one device control 8 outlets of the power strip to save you money.
Ease of Use, Performance: 23/25
Look & Feel: 22/25
Features 22/25
How much I enjoy 22/25
Total: 89/100
The TrickleStar 12 Outlet PowerStrip is a new and unique way to save money without the hassles of actually having to switch off devices as well as protecting your expensive electronics. The idea behind the TrickleStar line of money saving devices is simple but a little costly for a power strip but the savings can add up.
While turning off a device may not be much of a hassle think about your daily routine and just what you actually leave on when leaving a room, this has surely made me think about it. I usually don’t bother to turn off the speaker system or the Wii charging base that is sitting right on my entertainment center shelf when I’m done watching television
These small devices will continue to draw power while I am snug in my bed, wasting money as there is no reason to keep them powered up while I sleep. That’s were devices like the TrickleStar PowerStrip comes in handy by switching devices off when not in use using one outlet and the device plugged into as a control device.
To start with the TrickleStar 12 Outlet PowerStrip is a conventional power strip for three outlets and has a control outlet that is switching on and off eight other outlets. The 12 Outlet PowerStrip also has a surge protection circuit for a telephone line and another for your television antenna to prevent damage to these devices through the coax or telephone line.
The telephone line and antenna surge protection is lightning and overvoltage protection that cuts off the circuit if the device senses more voltage than is usual for a telephone or antenna line. The rest of the TrickleStar PowerStrip centers on the circuit protection and savings that a switched outlet can provide.
You get the usual TrickleStar surge protection for all your devices with fire proof metal oxide varistor that is encased in ceramic to provide fireproof protection of the device should overvoltage or a surge happen. This protection is unusual for a power strip and the TrickleStar is warranted for $400,000 of your electronics connected to the device should it fail.
The main use of the TrickleStar PowerStrip is to save money and it does this by a simple sensing circuit built into the control outlet of the power strip. When this circuit senses the control device like a television or computer is turned on the power strip supplies power to the eight switched outlets.
Sensitivity for this is a three position switch on the side of the power strip and I am not exactly sure how the device senses this but electronics are involved. The PowerStrip does work to sense when my home built computer or my television is turned off and this turns off all eight outlets of the switched feature.
Using a Kill A Watt meter I see how much wattage the devices I connect to the TrickleStar PowerStrip use and I get 28.8 watts when not using a control device. My computer uses 7.7 watts of electricity when this is the only device getting power through the power strip so I can save 21.1 watts per hour.
This comes out to be a savings of about $7.75 a year I can save using the TrickleStar PowerStrip which may not seem like a lot but this is not the only stuff I can plug into one of these. I can use both this size and smaller less expensive TrickleStar power strips in all kinds of rooms for my computers, television and more to help save money throughout my home.
Just recently I reviewed an energy efficient power supply for my computer and the possible savings per year using a more efficient PSU in my system is about $42 per year. Along those lines I did some calculations using the Kill A Watt meter to see how much wattage the entertainment system I have in my living room is using and I can save about $7.40 a year there.
My living room entertainment center has a Vizio television, Wii and PlayStation 3 along with a Logitech speaker system with subwoofer and a Wii controller charging station. I connected the Wii, the charging station and the speaker system with subwoofer to the switched outlets of the TrickleStar PowerStrip while the television is the control.
The system worked flawlessly with the television controlling the three outlets and saving me a potential of $7.40 a year by dropping the wattage from 12 watts down to 1.7 watts using the switched outlets. The system does not work well for consoles like the PlayStation 3 as the gaming system does not want to be shut off without using the regular power off system from the menu.
It does work well for the Wii, the Wii charger station and especially for the speaker system which draws a lot of power and is a bit of a pain to turn off using the power button. Usually we do not turn this off because it is just not thought of when we power off the television after watching TV.
Using smart power strips as these devices are commonly being called can add up to a lot of savings and this is how I am going to start buying outlet strips in the future. While not every power strip and situation would make sense to use one many situations in my home will use a smart outlet and ones with less outlets and less cost will also make a better fit depending on the situation.
The 12 Outlet TrickleStar PowerStrip costs about $55 and can currently be purchased at Amazon as well as the TrickleStar website but Wal-Mart also lists it as available soon. I am going to be looking for other configurations of these smart or advanced power strips for purchase so I can have several throughout my home to help me save money.
I highly recommend the TrickleStar 12 Outlet PowerStrip to save money by switching off devices when they are not in use simply by sensing when a control device is turned on.
