We’ve been trying to save money on our utility bills since the beginning of… um… utility bills. We’ve seen nifty gadgets like motion sensor lights, fancy new light bulbs, and even digital thermostats. Now we can save money right at the electrical outlet using ThinkEco’s Modlet Smart Outlet. You may have heard that many electrical appliances are using your electricity even when you are not using them. The Modlet (or “modern outlet”) can help you change all that. This is the dawn of a new age of electrical outlets!
The Modlet helps you save by monitoring electrical usage, suggesting a good plan of action, and allowing you to schedule shut-off times so there isn’t the waste of electricity when you’re not using those electrical items. The Modlet actually communicates with your computer (and their software) wirelessly to show you the electrical usage. Through the software’s interface, you can monitor, schedule and tweak your own electrical usage. It’ll even show you how much you are saving! 
One of the ideas behind ThinkEco’s contraption is that when you are educated on how much energy is being wasted, you will actually find yourself implementing a more drastic electricity savings plan. This saves you money! And who doesn’t like that? The ThinkEco Modlet Smart Outlet is already available for business use and it will be released for consumers in the first half of 2011. They’re saying the one-time price will be close to $50. Not too bad, eh?
There are cheaper, easier and more environmentally friendly ways to do the same thing.
-But a christmas tree timer (on the Net, “appliance timers” go for under $10, with fancier ones for $20). These allow you to program when your appliances go on and off. This is exactly what the $50 product does, (except that the latter will use it clever algorithms to determine what time your favorite television shows are, or what time you use your coffee pot)
-Alternatively, do what we do and just turn off the power strip when you’re done with the TV.
Both these solutions are obviously cheaper than the $50 device (and also have fewer privacy implications then telling some company when you use your appliances). They are also more friendly environmentally, since the embodied energy to make the chips that power the $50 device is likely quite large, and won’t be paid back for quite a while, if ever. Simpler devices have much less embodied energy.
Finally, its worth keeping in mind that standby power is usually rather small. Most devices use <5 watts when off. Yes, this can add up when multiplied by hundreds of millions of devices– but it adds up a lot slower than the environmental footprint of all these devices.
Jeff,
Some great points. It’s funny how simple (non techie) things can do the same job at very little cost.
Those are some good suggestions and some very simple alternatives. One thing the Modlet might help with is the education aspect. You can find out where you’re losing money and then perhaps implement some simple solutions. Just a thought.