Unplug or Reboot?

After receiving several follow-up questions to last week's "Feeling Drained?", we decided to catch up again with the technology experts at Consumer Reports and Energy Star's Andrew Fanara to get some more answers.

Q: Many of the devices I have require a considerable amount of re-setup time if they are powered off completely. This applies to TVs, modems, some radios and clocks—at least if you take advantage of the stored favorites options. I don't know yet about the digital conversion box from my cable company, but I assume the same is true. Do you know any way around this? Or whether manufacturers are getting smarter about including some sort of chip that will store the current status before turning the machine off?

A: You're right that many of these devices, especially cable boxes and cable-ready TVs that plug into a cable jack in the wall, require some time to reprogram each time they're plugged in, so it isn't always convenient to unplug them every time they're not in use.

Dean Gallea and Richard Sulin, technology experts from Consumer Reports, point out that cable boxes are intended to receive a signal from the provider at all times for programming changes. When unplugged and plugged in again, they will often need to be reprogrammed manually. In this case, you may need to compromise. Plug items like DVD players, CD players, cell-phone and PDA chargers and anything with a "standby" mode into a power strip that you can switch off and leave those cumbersome cable boxes and other boxes that would otherwise need to be rebooted plugged into a wall. One way to make this easier is to buy a power strip with a combination of outlets that can be switched off and outlets that are always on, like the APC Home/Office Surge Arrest 11-outlet Surge Protector ($39.99; www.officedepot.com).

"If you go on a long trip, unplug everything," says Sulin. "Just be prepared, when you return and plug them back in, that some things may need time (up to 24 hours for cable boxes) to get back in sync, or for you to reprogram them."

Fortunately, we may not have to compromise for much longer. Andrew Fanara, from Energy Star's product development team, says that they're working with manufacturers to develop products with a power-down mode that would consume significantly fewer watts when left on standby and wouldn't lose settings. "In the case of a set-top box, the box [would be] smart enough to realize that the TV's not on, and should be able to lower its power way down and save the settings," he adds. "That way, it doesn't have to be powered up 24/7."

Q: I just read your article about unplugging appliances to save energy and it says that they must be unplugged to save, not just turned off. At the end of the article it says that power strips are a great way to turn everything off at once, but doesn't the strip have to be unplugged and not just switched off?

A: Fanara says there are almost no power losses at all when the power cord is plugged in but switched off: "It is functionally zero," he says.

So rest assured, just flipping that switch does the job. And to the reader who asked about power strips that can be switched on and off via foot pedals, we didn't have much luck in finding one, but as soon as we do, we'll let you know.