Belkin's Answer to the Abandoned Charger

Don't let this happen to you!

Lonely Chargers Looking for a Nice Phone

Does this scene exist in your home? Be honest! My guess is "yes" and you're not alone as according to the Consumer Electronics Association only about a third of all consumers always unplug and as much as 61% or people sometimes or always neglect to unplug the charger after they disconnect a charged device. Fear not! Belkin has come to rescue your bank account with the Conserve Valet Smart USB Charging Station.


Here is what it looks like and a short video clip on how it works.

Belkin Valet Video Link

The purpose of this product is to allow you to charge your mobile devices (cellphone, smartphones, cameras, anything that is able to charge via USB) without racking up lots of standby (vampire) power usage, but more on that in a moment. 


The first detail I noticed about the Belkin Valet was the packaging, or I should say the lack of it. As a self proclaimed geek I've purchased a lot of electronics in my life.  More recently, many of those products claim to have some kind of environmentally friendly or "green" attribute.  Some of those claims are true and some are not, but even for the ones that can legitimately claim environmental benefit my first perception of the product comes, not from the claims made, but from the packaging.  I despise those bubble packed clam shell things that a lot of devices are sold in these days.  Nothing tells me you're not serious about your environmental claims quicker that an oversized, cardboard and plastic mound of garbage held together with twist ties.  Honestly all of this material is a cost that product manufacturers externalize onto consumers because we have to pay (through municiple taxes and waste hauling fees) to recycle and/or throw that mess away! You're also paying some incremental cost to have all of the packaging material included with the product.


Anyway, enough with the rant. My point is that far too often all that additional packaging is not necessary and Belkin, with it's Conserve series of products provides us with excellent examples of what good, responsible packaging should look like. See here (tomatoes sold seperately)-->


Look! No ridiculous extra plastic bags. No unnecessary plastic covering and only one (yes one) twist tie.  The whole package unfolds into one beautifully flat piece of cardboard just itching to be recycled.  The only missing piece is that I don't see an FSC certification label on the package, but we'll let that slide for now.  All-in-all a great job by the packaging engineers at Belkin for considering this often overlooked, but glaringly visible detail!


OK, one additional quick rant related to where I bought this device.  Unfortunately, Best Buy, where I normally buy all of my electronic devices did not have the Valet stocked at any of the 3 stores that I visited in my area, so I had to order it, which I did from the store.  While walking through a local Sears earlier in the week I noticed that their electronics department carried both the Valet, and a power metering device similar to the Kill-A-Watt that I previously reviewed and all of the other products in the Belkin Conserve line.  Bad Best Buy! Good Sears!


So I know you're thinking, blah, blah, blah... enough about the packaging and the responsible product offerings of retail establishments already!  Does the thing actually work as advertised?  Well in a word, "yes," and let's take a look at my little field test. 


As shown in the video posted above, essentially you plug the USB cord that came with your handheld device into one of the four USB slots located on the Valet. The Valet charges the connected devices and returns to a zero energy state within 4 hours or automatically turns itself off if charging devices are removed from their chargers.  Let's see the details...


First, I plugged in a power strip to my Kill-A-Watt to setup the test and was a bit surprise.  This old power strip actually consumed a small amount of electricity (0.4 of a watt) all the time, so I had to subtract this amount from each of the next few tests (keep that in mind when you see the number on the Kill-A-Watt screen).

Then I looked at home much energy a generic LG charger that I regularly use to charge my Motorolla Droid 2.  Turns out it only uses about 0.1 of a watt.

I then separately tested the charger for my wife's iPhone (yes I do this kind of stuff in my free time).  It uses 0.2 of a watt.

I then plugged both chargers in and tested the amount that both used together. 0.4 (from the power strip) + 0.1 (from the LG charger) + 0.2 (from the iPhone charger) = 0.7 of a watt as expected.

Next I checked the Belkin Valet and as advertised, it does not consume any electricity in standby mode.

Next I checked the consumption of the two chargers with both phones plugged, which added up to 12.1 watts.

Lastly, I checked the consumption of the Valet with the two phones connected and charging and found that it was consuming only 10.3 watts, which I believe could extended the needed charging time slightly, but given that the valet turns itself off to a zero energy state after the phones are charged, there is some savings there that would make up for the additional time.

I've used the Belkin Valet for a few weeks now.  Typically my wife and I will plug our phones into it at night and allow them to charge.  In the morning both phones are charged and the Valet isn't pulling any electricity.


Overall I recommend this device. The benefit of the valet is that it's an aesthetically attractive solution that allows you to clean up the mess of cables around your phones/handhelds while saving you some money in wasted energy.  I would like to point out, however, that you could probably achieve the same effect with a timer such as this one, which I use to charge my laptop only during certain periods of time since the charger uses 80 watts, or do what I typically do and charge you phone in your car. My commute is long enough that I can typically charge the phone to the point where it lasts me all day.  A device like a phone charger is not going to impact your fuel economy and your car's alternator is generating the power anyway, so why not use it.


Belkin's Conserve line also includes a power strip with a master control slot that cuts standby power and is very similar to the 360 Electronics and Rocketfish strips that I previously reviewed.  Check them all out at a Sears (and other stores) near you.


Dennis

My Home Energy Monitor

In my last post I listed a chart that showed a breakdown of my home's energy use, energy production from my photovoltaic system, and my utility meter from mid January of this year through yesterday.  This chart was generated by my Powerhouse Dynamics Emonitor, which is cool little device that monitors all twenty-four electrical circuits in my home and beams that information over the internet to an API that tracks and trends a wealth of information.


Every electron flowing to an electronic device in my home is accounted for, which allows me to look deep inside the workings of my home and identify those appliances that will keep my kids out of expensive private colleges!  The API rolls up the data to show me the big offenders, such as my air conditioner, as well as those phantom power sucking little guys like my TiVo.

The eMonitor dashboard shows the amount of power I'm producing (none at the moment since the sun has already set), what I'm using, and how much energy I'm pulling from the electric utility.  Also listed here is my carbon footprint, which in my case is zero due to our producing more energy than we consume.

You'll also notice the "Phantom Power" icon, which shows those devices that are drawing power nearly constantly.  These could be items such as cable boxes, DVRs, old stereos or other appliances.  As you can see, phantom power can cost you a significant amount of money over time.  I've got some handy, simple and cheap fixes for this that I'll discuss in a future post.

The pie chart shows me where I'm using energy on a 30-day rollup basis, where I stand as far as cost for the month, and what the top four energy offenders are (Bad air conditioner!).

With this data I am able to both drive my family crazy through frequent consumption lectures and, at the same time, identify where I can make changes to save cash.  I can easily justify replacing old appliances based on cost or simply choose to unplug those energy wasters that are not in use. The eMonitor even has a report card and gives me tips on how to reduce my consumption.


The additional interesting capability of the eMonitor is that it can control other "smart" (Zigbee) devices in you home, such as a WiFi enabled thermostat like the one that I own (more on this later).


Probably the most amazing feature of the Powerhouse Dynamics eMonitor is the fact that I can monitor my home electric use through the internet no matter where I am (there's even an iPhone app).  No more worrying about leaving a light or the oven on! As it will even text me alerts if something doesn't seem right. Since I can also control my thermostat with it, I can turn off my air conditioner (my largest electricity user) when I leave for a few days and turn it back on with my smartphone from the road on my return. I recently learned that WiFi enabled electrical outlets will be added to the eMonitor offering, which will allow me to be able to remotely control individual appliances.


The eMonitor can be purchased from Amazon.com and other retailers. I purchased mine from energycircle.com and prices vary depending on the number of circuits you would want to monitor and if you would also like to include power production (solar, wind, etc...).  While it is a bit pricey you'll likely recoup your money in a few years time (or less) with the savings you'll be able to achieve once you have the energy use data in hand.


I chose the eMonitor due to the fact that is was the only circuit by circuit energy monitor on the market at the time (January 2011).  There are others devices on the market that monitor a few circuits, such as the TED device that I've heard good things about, but to me, the extra information provided by the eMonitor saved me time in chasing down the energy wasters in my home, so there was some extra value there.


I was able to install the device myself, but I wouldn't recommend that job for just anyone.  Placement of the sensors that connect from the hot wire on each electrical circuit to the eMonitor requires you to remove the cover and place your hands inside of your circuit breaker box. I did this with the power shut off (and locked out) at the main coming into my house, on a weekend with my wife and kids away.


Anyway, I wanted to mention that I learned about the eMonitor from the TWiT Green Tech Today netcast, which I've embedded below.  I also wanted to mention that Jason Chen over at Lifehacker recently wrote a great review (much better than mine) that I would also recommend.



For those searching for a commercial solution, Powerhouse Dynamics now has a version of the emonitor for you as well.


Happy monitoring!