10

Belkin
Conserve AV Surge Protector with Wireless Remote
for Home Theatre

Surge protectors are a vital accessory to have for anything electrical in your home or office, whether it's for computers or home theatre equipment. Interestingly enough, most people believe that surge protectors only just protect equipment from electrical power disturbances, however those innovative people at Belkin have come up with one of the most ingenious ideas to date with the Conserve AV Surge Protector.

Apart from surge protection, this eco-conscious device targets one of the most continuous wastes of energy which is standby power, sometimes referred to as vampire power.

This means that most items connected to the mains use standby power when not in use such as gaming peripherals, TV's and computers. As our homes and offices become inundated with a wide myriad of technology devices, these devices that use standby power definitely adds up in wasted energy and money. However, thanks to Belkin, we were given the chance to test this device, dare I say, miraculous device that comes with a wireless remote switch to ensure that your equipment is not using standby power.

Features

• Lifetime Product Replacement Warranty
    Belkin will replace, free of charge, any Belkin surge protector that is defective or expires after protecting your electronic devices.

• Hassle Free Connected Equipment Warranty
    Belkin will repair or replace any equipment damaged by a surge, spike, or lightning strike while properly connected to a Belkin surge protector, up to $250,000

• 8 Surge Protected AC Outlets: Provides protection against electrical power disturbances such as surges, spikes and lightning strikes that are carried through your electrical wiring and outlets.

• Wireless Remote: The wireless RF remote can control up to eight Conserve Surge Protectors for even greater energy savings.

• Dual 2.2GHz F-type Coaxial Protection: Provides protection against lightning strikes that travel down the aerial or satellite dish.

• Recessed Sockets: The recessed sockets are an additional safety feature designed to reduce the risk of electrocution.

• Cable Managetment: The cable management clip keeps cables neat and tidy.

• EMI/RFI Noise Filtration - 150kHz~100MHz: Electromagnetic interference/radio frequency interference causes AC line contamination that leads to audio/video interference.

• Joule Rating - 1836J: A joule is the measurement of energy a surge protector can absorb. A higher joule rating reflects higher-quality surge protection and longer product life.

• Protected indicators: The indicator shows that your surge protector is working properly.

This raises the question about what happens to devices that need to use standby power? Well my friends, Belkin have addressed this issue by splitting the board into two sections which include two switched sockets (always on) and six remote switched sockets (allowed to be turned off).

Unfortunately devices such as DVRs, Foxtel or TIVO need to be connected to standby power permanently in order to keep configuration settings and download the latest program guides. Thus the reason why Belkin have included two sockets that do not get switched off when you click the switch.

So what other appliances consume standby power? Quite a few actually and Belkin have give us a few examples of what can become quite a costly experience for users.  Television, DVD Player, Blu-Ray player, CD Player, AV Receiver, Amplifier, Subwoofer, Gaming Console, Stereo System, Set-top box, MP3 player/charger, Antenna Signal Booster and many more. A recent study has shown that the PlayStation 3, followed by a Plasma TV consume the most power while in standby, closely followed by the XBox 360. Interesting enough, the PlayStation 3 uses 10 times more power in Standby mode than the Nintendo Wii.

Apart from standard surge protection such as spikes, the device offers protection for PAY TV and Aerial Protection. This means that should your antenna or pay TV dish be struck by lightning, the device will ensure to protect any device connected to the unit. It should be noted that the device comes with Belkin's Lifetime Warranty with up to $250,000 connected equipment warranty, ensuring the best peace of mind available. In laymen's terms this guarantees the user that Belkin will repair or replace and equipment that has been damaged by surges, spikes or lightning strikes that have been properly connected to the surge protector.

Installation? What installation! The installation of Conserve AV Surge Protector with Wireless Remote for Home Theatre was pure bliss and it also gave us a chance to tidy up our wiring which included LG Plasma TV, TIVO, PlayStation 3, XBox 360, Nintendo Wii and Logitech Z-5500 Surround Sound system.

We connected the TIVO to one of the Switched Sockets (Always on) because every time the TIVO loses power, we need to wait sometimes up to 15-minutes for the device to reconfigure. However all the other devices were simply connected to the Remote Switch Sockets as they are not required to be on 24x7.

Although the board contains a manual switch for the remote switched sockets, where this device excels even more is through the Wireless Remote Switch that allows the user to turn off these devices by the press of a button. Although you can have this device neatly sitting on your coffee table or desk, the unit also comes with a Wall-mount bracket that allows you to attach this to your wall and perhaps next to your light switch. Once setup, everything was working perfectly and best of all, our devices were protected from not only electrical surges but also noise.

The device boasts EMI/RFI Noise Filtration of 150kHz ~ 100MHz system, ensuring that electromagnetic and radio interference does not contaminate audio and video. As we had cleared out cabling up, we did not notice an improvement over electromagnetic contamination, especially with our Nintendo Wii which was prone to it by displaying at times, snow on our screen. This was now a thing of the last.

For TV, The device offers Dual 2.2Ghz F-type Coaxial Protection which insulates the coaxial cable from lighting strikes via your TV or Foxtel Dish, so if you do hampen to be effected by an act of god, it may travel down the coaxial wire, however the Conserve AV Surge Protector will ensure that your devices are as protected as best possible.

So how do you know if your devices are protected? The device contains a green LED that when lit, indicates that your devices are surge protected. One thought though as generally these surge protectors are hidden away, it would have been nice if a light was also included on the remote as well.

Lastly, the Conserve AV Surge Protector is combatable with multiple Conserve channel units thanks to the 8 individual channel settings which allows you to control multiple units in different zones of your home. All I can say is that I wish I had this much hindsight as Belkin!

Specifications

• Continuous Duty Electrical Rating: 240V/10A/50Hz/2400W

• Maximum Energy Dissipation: 1836 Joules

• Maximum Spike Current: 72,000Amps

• Maximum Spike Voltage: 6,000 Volts

• Response Time: Less than 1 Nanosecond

• EMI/RFI Noise Filtration: 150kHz~100MHz up to 58dB reduction

• F-Type Protection: Yes, dual 2.2Ghz

• Wireless Remote: Radio Frequency with a range up to 20m

• Wireless Remote Battery: User replaceable, A23 (12V)

In conclusion, this eco-conscious device is a must have piece of technology for your home or office that not only saves you power but  in turn assists with environment without leaving too much of a carbon footprint.

It also ensures that your expensive appliances are protected from a variety of electrical dangers plus Belkin's great Lifetime Warranty is another bonus that should not be scoffed at.

Although other companies are travelling down the eco-conscious path as Belkin, this is probably the best device available that comes highly recommended by Impulse Gamer and is definitely a contender for product of the year!

Amazing!