Well, I went out and bought a APC smart power strip with intention of reconfiguring my entertainment center or family computer. It didn't quite work out as planned and the smart power strip is going back.
A smart power strip has 1 outlet on it that it monitors the power draw on. When the strip senses a low enough draw on that outlet, it assume the device is in hibernate or off mode and powers down the rest of the outlets. So, if you have your computer plugged in to the monitored outlet, when hibernate or turn off the computer, the rest of your devices will turn off too.
Unfortunately, my family computer draws 7-10W when it's off or in hibernation which is not low enough to trip the smart strip's sensor. I tried it on my TV as well - it uses 7W when it's off. I gave up on the smart strip and it's going back to Staples. Maybe there are other one's out there that work better but APC's certainly didn't.
That said, I did find out a lot about everything else I have plugged in. My cellphone charger, receiver and DVD player all register 0W on the Kill-a-watt. My Apple TV is using 18W 24/7 - more when I'm actually using it. Since it doesn't have a power switch (bad apple!), I moved it to it's own dedicated power bar that I'm keeping switched off. I also found a power supply sucking 4W that wasn't plugged into anything - the printer it had been attached to died about a year ago. In all, I only found 2 devices that need to be on 24/7, the cordless phone base station and the answering machine so moved everything else on to logically grouped power bars.
With recent updates, I should be saving an additional 13.8KWh per month which when added to my previous totals equals 51.6KWh saved. I think I've met my goal. Hopefully the real world agrees with my projections.
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