I’m sure all of you know plugged-in appliances slowly run up your electric bill. The annoyance of having to unplug/plug devices is enough to just ignore the whole problem altogether. The Belkin TimeOutlet concept is a modular, stackable surge protector divided into 4 quadrants. Each section corresponds to a time of day. When that time is over, power is cut from everything in that quadrant and power turns on in the next.
In theory I like the idea since most of my appliances do tend to operated only at certain hours of the day. What I don’t like is the design. The stackable modular system looks like it can get ridiculously tall, especially for an area like the entertainment center. I tend to hide my surge protectors, not bring attention to them. A good idea nonetheless but I prefer a less “band-aid” approach to energy conservation. Manufacturers need to include circuity that enables people to totally, 100% turn off the power of any device instead of having it sit in some standby, limbo power mode.
Designers: Hoang M Nguyen, Anh Nguyen & Sam Staar
