I have a powerstrip that I need to be able to switch on and off quickly but the problem is that the power strip is in a very heard to reach place (behind my entertainment center) but the power outlet where the cord goes into is in a very easily accessible location. I see that they have plugs you can switch on and off with a remote control but those seem like they’re meant for lamps and won’t be able to take an entire power strips load of electricity.
Is there such thing as a power strip where the button to turn it on/off is on the plug side and not the strip side? Or something else I could use to turn off the entire thing without having to touch the strip itself?
I’m sure there are such things, but if you’re unable to source one you could always slice the cable a few inches from the plug and wire in your own cord switch. Something like one of these:
No harder to install than wiring a plug. If you want something more high tech, you could also look at a smart plug and turn it on and off with your phone.
Of course, if you were in the UK, you wouldn’t have this problem . Our power sockets are always (well mostly) switched.
Not going to help you very much but here in Australia (amongst other countries but not all) the usual arrangement is for the power switch to be on the wall plug and most power boards don’t have switches for each outlet, though these are available.
The US system is not unique and I don’t know which would be in the majority.
Use this, $7 and no wiring necessary.
I don’t know exactly what you call it, a “plug-in switch” or something. It just plugs into a socket, has an outlet on the front, and a switch on the side.
I don’t know about the OP but my Vizio seems to have a bug where it comes back on after I turn it off with the remote. If I unplug it and plug it back in, it stays off.
I assume almost everyone knows this, but pressing the power switch on a modern TV does not cut the power to the TV. It just turns off the screen. The rest of the TV’s electronics remain powered, drawing vampire power, although possibly less than when it’s fully operational. If the TV were completely powered off it couldn’t be turned on by the remote.
Just wanted to second this… it’s worth looking at the watt and amperage ratings of things if you’re concerned about power draw, instead of just guessing.
In general, what you have to worry about when it comes to power draw are things that produce heat on purpose (space heaters, toasters, hot plates, hair dryers), or things with big motors (vacuum cleaners, woodworking tools)… household electronics generally don’t use that much power any more. Maybe the one notable exception is a gaming PC, because the graphics cards are very power hungry, but even video game consoles (Xbox, PS4) don’t use that much.
A modern TV doesn’t use much power, especially in standby. A random 75" TV, for example, uses 87 watts when it’s showing something, half a watt (0.5 W) when it’s in standby mode. Maybe a little more (5? 10?) for a while if it needs to download an update.
(Not saying this is the OP’s objective, but just putting this out there…)
For all the hubbub about phantom power (vampire power) and the need to turn things off at the power strip, it’s not really an issue with modern devices. That was a bigger deal two decades ago, when you had those big, inefficient wall-wart style AC-DC transformer blocks. These days most devices are pretty good about going to sleep when they need to.
It’s just not really worth it to worry about them much anymore. If you have money to spend on home energy retrofit projects, replace your old incandescent light bulbs (10x less efficient than modern bulbs), get better insulation if you can (to save on electric heating), and see if your municipality has programs to upgrade your old fridge or water heater. Power strips and TVs are just a waste of time…
Yes and no. Yes it does continue to draw power, but it’s not that ‘the rest of the TV’s electronics’ are still powered up. Granted, I wouldn’t go poking around in there with a fork just because it was turned off, but all that’s really energized is the little bit of electronics it needs to watch for inputs from the remote and send a wake up signal to…to whatever component gets the wake up signal.
To be fair, though, do they even still make “dumb” TVs without internet connectivity anymore? If not, either the CPU will be partially awake or some dedicated subprocessor could still be searching for updates/sending your nudes to Samsung/reporting back to the NSA. It’s not like the old days where there are different discrete components, a lot of TVs today are just small Linux computers with a big integrated screen. Definitely don’t stick a fork in it
I have a device that can only be turned off by unplugging it from the outlet and since I don’t use it unless I’m watching the TV its easier for me to turn both the TV and the device on and off at the same time.
I have a power strip that has some sort of control plug that can tell if it’s drawing a load. If it is, all the other plugs are switched on. If it’s not, it turns the rest of them off. I believe it was designed specifically for entertainment setups, where the TV would be plugged into the sensor plug, and the accessories into the other plugs. When the TV was turned off, all the other plugs went dead. The one I have was marketed as an eco-friendly alternative to normal power strips.
. Our power sockets are always (well mostly) switched.