Saving Energy with peripherals turned off automatically

[gsinpei]

I'm trying to keep the electric bill small and save energy.
My computer goes to standby when nothing is going on.

I bought one of the energy saving power bars (CCI Smartstrip) http://news.thomasnet.com/fullstory/543887. This will turn off devices when the computer is in standby or hibernating. I've noticed that APC makes battery backups that have this function also.

So now my satellite receiver is off when the computer is in standby.
Now I have an HD-PVR which should be turned off also but I've noticed that if the satellite doesn't give a video signal then the HD-PVR doesn't work until it's turned off and on again.

It takes the satellite receiver a couple of minutes after being turned on to actually show a picture again. So I have to power on the HD-PVR a few minutes after the satellite is turned on.

I've ordered one of the Delay on Make devices similar to this: http://www.accesscontrolsales.com/Airotronics/thc.htm
which I'm hoping will do the trick.

Now if this works, nothing will be on until a few minutes before it's needed and for about 6 minutes after it's needed so that the standby resume timing will work ok. The setting to resume will need about 5 minutes before recording which is set up in BTV.

Has anyone done anything similar to this and what did you use to do it with?

[Fonceur]

Seems like a lot of hassle to save 10 cents a day...

[gsinpei]

It is an exercise in trying to be efficient, 10 cents a day savings for one person isn't much but if a million save 10 cents a day it makes a difference in today's world where being green matters. Using led lights instead of tungsten makes a big difference when many use them.
The payback in savings will pay for the devices in a relatively short time.
In a cold climate it's less worthwhile because the heat from the devices are beneficial for a good portion of the year. In a hot climate where air conditioning is used there's even more reason to be efficient... your mileage may vary

[haveitall]

Thanks for posting. With two entertainment setups plus the server - I think I need to try a bit harder to keep the power consumption down. I will try one of these out.