Axiom Home Page Forums General Discussion Home Theater Surge protector that eliminates standby power

I just came across this new power bar that can be turned off remotely with a RF remote control, and I know there is a few people on the forum that would possibly be interested in a unit like Belkin's conserve energy power bar . Excellent concept, I'm picking one up today!

Take care guys

Edit-I just noticed that it covers to 1000 joules, does anyone know if this is sufficient? I've seen other power bars with a much higher rating but obviously don't have the remote switch.

If nothing else, the remote gives it a good cool factor.

Only problem is that it's RF, so I couldn't use my harmony to control it. Plus it probably costs an arm and a leg...

Hi wheelz999,

I just had an interesting conversation with Tom Cumberland, Axiom's chief electronics engineer, who also sits on a number of Consumer Electronics Association panels that establish various electronic and wiring standards. Previous to joining Axiom, Tom lived in Florida, the lightning strike capitol of the world. During that time, before he realized what Florida was like, he lost several cable boxes, satellite dish receivers and computers to surges from lightning strikes.

Here's the gist of what he told me. If lightning strikes a transformer, phone lines or power wires outside your house, everything is toast--no surge protector will work.

However, he pointed out that if lightning strikes a mile away--goes from the ground to a cloud--it may generate a surge of a couple hundred joules on the power grid, which your protector would work against. Lightning strikes emit powerful EMF's (electro-magnetic field) like a nuclear blast, and that can travel along the power grid, cable lines or phone lines. It can even penetrate underground (buried) power and cable lines. But it's subject to the Inverse Square Ratio law, so that if the strike is a mile or a few Kilometers away, the surge weakens rapidly and is likely only going to be a few hundred joules so your device would work.

A UPS (uninterruptible power supply) like the battery backup on your laptop, will prevent computer problems from brief power interruptions which might be triggered by lightning strikes. Here at Axiom, which is in a Northern Ontario region that gets lots of storms, we have UPS on all the computers to protect against the power blackouts that occur fairly regulary during the fall and winter.

Regards,

Alan

I thought so too, but I was pleasantly surprised to find out that it is only $60 Canadian, $55 I believe on Belkin's website.

Will this device make it so you will lose any settings that is usually kept in tact with the standby mode?

Yup, but I figure most devices have a battery that holds that stuff for a certain amount of time. After all, do you lose all your settings when the power goes out?

Sure do.

Oh. Which ones?

If my power goes out for lets say 8 hours my receiver loses all settings and I have to go back a calibrate it all over.

Ah. I think I've gone and killed my DVD changer settings... forgot to plug it back in after it locked up on boot. Dangit. I'm not sure how long my receiver would last.

I will call them this afternoon and inquire if that will happen because it would be a bummer.

I sure would, it wouldn't be to my liking if that happened every time.

Oh, of course it would. They're cutting power entirely, that's the point.

I figured so, just wanted to make sure Cam realized it before he ran into the problem.

The way I see it, if you turn your stuff on often enough, you don't have to worry about it. But I don't think I do...

You think that I would lose settings from my TV, DVD player, and a CD player and not just my receiver?? I could just run my receiver on another power strip.

I guess the only real way to know would be to call each manufacturer, and that's a pain in the butt.

I would think most devices would "reset" without constant power.

Most devices don't have a battery, just capacitors. So their settings persist when unplugged for a few minutes, but not hours. Some nicer/newer equipment will store settings in flash or some other sort of non-volatile memory, but that's pretty rare.

Ah, good to know.

You would think that with more and more equipment being energy efficient, manufacturers would stay on course and install flash etc. so we can get rid of this stupid standby mode which just drains power constantly. Err, the one thing I hate is using unnecessary electricity.

I am sure we will be seeing more flash memory devices in the future as they start to 'green' all products.

Thanks for all the input guys. It's a good thing I mentioned it on here before purchasing it, because I would have been wheeling into all kinds of problems as I don't use my system enough and everything would reset.

Edit-Oh yes, and thanks Alan for your reply. I stumbled across B.C. Hydro's website and they had an article regarding electrical strikes and surge protectors etc. and what you stated conformed with what they said.

Well, I'd often shut down power to the surge protector when I would be away for a couple of weeks. The only problem I'd have was with my digital cable when I'd lose access to the movie channels. My SN R771 wouldn't lose it's settings, nor did my Epson projector.

My parent's house was affected by a "near hit" lightning strike earlier this year. Some of you may remember that my dad had a professionally-installed (read: ueber-overpriced) home theater including all the bells and whistles like several incredibly spendy surge protectors...

Turns out they did him no good, just as Alan/Tom suggested. The lightning totally ignored his surge protectors and fried a number of his expensive components. Bad news... lost the equipment, good news, insurance covered it and he was able to upgrade to more current gear.

Jason

Just got off the phone with Denon, and the surge protector would work because the 3808 has a memory in it, but the representative did say that it might cause the memory to lessen over time and ultimately reset. He did say, as others have on here, that it is dependent on how long the unit would be off for. Short times would be fine, but I told him that sometimes I don't use it for two weeks, and that would pose a problem.

Does anyone know if a computer would operate in the same manner?

No, a computer will be OK, with the AC completely cut. The BIOS settings are battery backed, and everything else is stored on the hard drive.

We've been having very strong winds here over the night and into today. Power lines are blowing down all over town. So I've cut the power to my computer and HT to keep them from seeing the cycling power and any possible surges as the load on the power grid fluctuates. So I'll see if my gear retains settings for several hours (my DVD player was on when I woke this morning, as it was without power for long enough to not remember what state is was supposed to be in).

I ordered one online today, so I'll let you guys know what the verdict is when I get it all hooked up.

You are a true energy saving pioneer Cam! To me this sounds like way too much worry about losing settings, etc. to be worth it. (but hey, I've no qualms about saying I'm too lazy to bother)

Don't know if we're great minds ... but we sure think alike Jason.

My thoughts as well.

I'm going to use it for my computer and 3801 that is hooked up to my computer which I use daily, so hopefully I won't lose any settings in it but wouldn't be a big deal if I did. I would love to use something like it for my home theater but it's not feasible.

Well, my DVD changer didn't lose its settings after being unplgged for 3 days, so that's something.

Now try your receiver .

That is promising. I say everyone unplug everything and let me know how you make out, and I'll let you know how I make out when I get the power bar . I would like to use it for my sub, CD player, and possibly DVD player (the first two don't retain any settings). The unique thing about the power bar is that it also has two "always on" sockets, if anyone missed that.

Called Samsung and they said that the settings on my TV would be reset if the TV was unplugged for any longer than a minute. In other words, write down the settings!!

Oh, that's pathetic. A minute?

Yep, I don't know if the representative was being very conservative but that's no word of a lie. I have found Samsung's customer support to be subpar and very uninformed. I've called a couple times and have received incorrect information i.e. when I was waiting for my TV to be delivered I called and asked where the inputs are located on the back of the TV, and I was told they were in the center, but upon receiving the TV they were on the back left side, which was a pain in the butt because I had to purchase longer cables to reach all the way across the back of the TV.

Edit-I just received the power bar, so hopefully I'll be able to get someone to help me hook it up before the end of the weekend. Pretty slick shipping though; ordered yesterday, received today.

I finally got the power bar hooked up so here is my professional review .

The unit is really slick, it has two "always on" outlets, as well as 8 outlets that are activated via the remote. I have my ultramafic bed (no standing power)and phone plugged into the "always on" outlets, and I have my computer, computer monitor, headset, and 3801 plugged into the remote control outlets. The remote switch is affixed to the wall via an adhesive pad (supplied on the back of the remote cradle) beside my bedroom light switch. Now I just power down my computer, turn the receiver off, flip the RF switch off, and voilà, everything is turned off completely and I'm no longer wasting energy in standby mode!!

I've had no ill effects to my receiver (touch wood), but I've only been turning it off completely during the night for the past couple of days.

Overall it was well worth the money, but then again I'm extremely energy-efficient and even the smallest amount makes a difference to me.


And no I'm not going to download REW and test to see if it made a difference in the sound of my monitor nines