HiSaver smart power strip

Another way to ratchet down stand-by power on electronics is with automated power strips. A new one on the market is from HiSaver, which reduces stand-by power to near zero by using an optical sensor that could go under a desk. At its booth at CES 2010, they showed how turning off peripherals for a PC dropped power use from 180 watts to 80 watts. The company hopes to sell the HiSaver plug, which will be available online in February for $99, to both consumers and business.

Another company to show off a standby power killer was Embertec, a company from Australia that expects to release a product in the U.S. in 2011. Its smart plug products use wireless home networking--either Z-Wave or Zigbee--to both cut stand-by power and give people a display of energy use from a PC. In field trials in Australia, the company has found people save $85 a year on entertainment systems and $41 a year on PCs, said David Levine, the chief marketing officer from Embertec.