Advanced Power Strips Buyer's Guide

Advanced Power Strip Buyer's Guide

An Advanced Power Strip (commonly known as an “APS” or “smart power strip”) looks like any other power strip, but has features that helps you save energy and money by reducing the amount of standby power wasted by your electronics. Standby power is the energy that is continuously drawn by electronics when they are plugged in, but turned off. In an office environment these types of devices include printers, monitors, and lighting. With home entertainment systems, common culprits include sound systems, DVD players, televisions, and gaming systems. Estimated annual savings when a Tier I APS is used in conjunction with home office equipment is 31 kWh of electricity, and when used in conjunction with a home entertainment syste 75.1 kWh of electricity could be saved each year (source: neep.org.

Standby power is the energy that is continuously drawn by electronics when they are plugged in, but turned off.
Some common culprits include computers, TVs, speakers, DVD players, and gaming systems. For this reason, advanced power strips are commonly used in home office and entertainment system setups.

How Does an Advanced Power Strip Work?

Advanced Power Strips work by automatically cutting power from selected outlets when the master outlet is not in use. An APS is available with varying numbers of outlets, but all share the following:

Master Outlet: the device plugged into this outlet must be on for the controlled outlets to be on
Controlled/Switched Outlets: outlets controlled by the master outlet
Always-On Outlets: for electronics you do not want to turn off automatically

Take your Entertainment System as an Example:

How Much Can be Saved?

By replacing your old power strip with an APS, you can reduce standby power and, in turn, lower your electric bill. The Massachusetts Technical Resource Manual estimates that the annual savings associated with use of a Tier I APS will be 105 kWh of electricity, and the annual expected savings associated with a more sophisticated Tier II APS will be 207 kWh (source: masssavedata.com). For a household paying $0.1662 per kWh of electricity (the U.S. national residential average in July 2024, source eia.gov), $17.45 will be saved every year through use of a Tier I APS, and $34.40 through use of a Tier II APS. In both cases, the resulting savings will exceed the cost of the power strip itself within a couple of years.

It is worth adding that APS also have surge protection capabilities, helping protect connected equipment from power flucutations, potentially prolonging the life of your electronics. 

Tier I and Tier II - What’s the Difference?

There are two major types of advanced power strips on the market, Tier I and Tier II.

Tier I (The Basic)

This simple APS works on a basic master/switched outlet principle using current sensing technology. When the master outlet device is on, the controlled/switched outlets are on as well. When the master device is turned off, power to the other sockets is disabled, turning those devices off.

Tier II (The Upgrade)

In addition to basic master/switched functionality, Tier II advanced power strips are able to use motion and remote control sensors to manage power to the outlets. Within a set time frame, if no motion or remote control signals are sensed, the outlets are automatically powered off.

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_{Contributors: Al Nadeau, Philip Scarbro, September 12, 2024}

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