Don't let the power go to your head

I don't generally talk about power boards unless someone specifically asks me and, so far, no one has.

If someone needs a power board, they pop down to their nearest supermarket, count the number of power points they need and pick one accordingly. Few would think too deeply about it.

I know I didn't but something happened that changed this. After an extended trip overseas, I arrived home to find my energy bill for that period wasn't much less than when we had been home.

I'd like to think my environmentally sound habits and scrupulous use of energy-saving devices was so effective that it was as if as I wasn't there. However, it probably had more to do with the fact I had forgotten to switch off the appliances at the power point. So, I started using a power board that had a switch and turned everything off at night . . . if I could remember to do it.

As our reader letter points out this week, there are products designed to let you use a remote trigger to cut off the power but I've come across something else that suits my purpose perfectly and doesn't require me to remember to switch everything off.

The Crest Earth Smart power board may sound like another me-too, tree-hugging, jump-on-the-environmental-bandwagon tech product but it solves such a basic problem without adding to your remote collection that I couldn't pass up the opportunity to try it out. It's basically a six-point power board (with surge protection) with one outlet designated as a "master" plug.

The device plugged into the "master" plug controls power fed to the remaining five "slave" connectors. For example, in my test set-up, I've connected the television to the master and the rest of the home entertainment gear to the slaves. When the TV is in standby mode, the power is cut to the slave sockets as if they were switched off at the wall. Turn the TV on and the power board flicks the other plugs on as well. So whenever the TV is in standby, the other equipment is automatically as good as unplugged.

It works by detecting the power draw from the master plug that indicates an appliance has been turned on. Not all devices will draw enough power to make this work but it does have a "knobbing switch" that lets you tune the sensitivity of the trigger. It's not cheap, though, at $249. And this will be the last time I talk about power boards.

What's your power saving tip?