One Surge Protector Power Strip can save you cash and get you hurtling down Efficiency Street...

If you think your entertainment center goes OFF when you turn it off, you are a trusting soul.  In fact, your DVD player is still ON, running its bright red clock all night long. Your Wii^tm remotes are still ON, waiting for a chance to spring into action again. In fact, all your toys are ON standby, waiting for you. That's a really sweet concept, in theory. In practice, however, they are charging you for the privilege.  The culprit is vampire energy, the slow (and sometimes not so slow) trickle of electricity that appliances draw after we think we have put them to bed.  The cost is far from imaginary, and not just a pittance. Our design guru, David, recently discovered that his flashy new entertainment center cost him $50.00 a month... when it was OFF.

While some home energy efficiency flaws are time consuming or expensive to fix, this one isn't.  In fact, at a time when Return on Investment (ROI) feels like a mirage in the desert, the Bits Smart Surge Strip is a fresh deep pool of value. Here's what David did. He plugged his television into the "main" plug on a Bits Smart. He plugged all of the peripherals (vampires) into responding plugs. Now, every time he turns off his television, everything else is shut down, too! Everything is turned Off!

Bet you're thinking, "Wow! That's so cool! I want to watch that go down!" Well, maybe not. But this is cool. The Bits Smart Power Strip costs just under $40.00. During its first month in action, it saved David $50.00. It will continue to save $50.00 every month from now until his kids get tired of games and he gets Carpal Tunnel from Wii^tm bowling. In the first year, after subtracting the amount paid for the Strip, David will pocket $560.00 from Bits smart. I'm ready to admit I don't have a stock in my portfolio giving me that return. Never have. Never will.

We've been talking about entertainment centers, but of course, the same goes for computers. It's handy that the Bits Smart is attached to a six-foot cord, and just plain wizardry that the power cord uses 1 watt of electricity when fully energized, and 0 watts when the switched outlets are off.  And, oh, yeah, it's a surge protector.  Seems not all surge protectors are created equal...

We think this is so important that we made a video about How to Fight Energy Vampires.  Check it out. You'll sleep better.