Full Review

13 September 2007 - Computing is not what it used to be, thank goodness. Only an old bloke called Albert hankers after the days when a personal computer required a room the size of my house and then took 4 years to say "hello world" after all.

PCs have shrunk in both size and price, while performance has gone through the roof.

The same applies to the peripherals that we connect it to, the huge LCD flat panel monitor, the all-in-one printer, scanner, copier, fax and Jacuzzi, the kick-ass speakers, a few TB of external storage and the list goes on.

The trouble is, all of this stuff consumes electricity, and most requires its own socket to suck that power out of the wall. Which is where the problems start.

First, unless you live in an office, you will have to invest in some socket extensions to plug the things into. Second, you have to pay the bills at the end of the month and it is surprising just how much your collection of PC peripherals, all sitting there on standby while you sleep, can cost in terms of electricity consumption every year. Third, there is the small matter of the cost to the environment to consider.

It is estimated that anywhere between 5 and 10% of the total electricity consumption of the world’s most developed nations is wasted by devices that are left on standby.

I have seen the wastage compared to leaving a carbon footprint equivalent to the exhaust fumes of 120,000 4 x 4 vehicles every year. And we all know that carbon dioxide emissions are a commonly blamed cause of global warming.

So, your computing habit could be wasting your money and killing the planet. Nice. Which is where the OneClick IntelliPanel comes in, superhero style to save the Earth and your wallet.

This all-in-one device looks and acts like any other power extension block, providing 8 plug sockets, plus built-in surge protection for the lot and telephone/modem protection for good measure.

But the really clever stuff starts when you plug your PC into the master socket and your peripherals into the others, and then switch on your computer.

It’s a miracle Ursula, and does not involve liquid nitrogen.

What it does involve is the IntelliPanel sensing that you’ve powered up the PC and then 5 seconds later powering up your peripherals as well. Thankfully it does the same in reverse as well, shutting down your peripherals 5 seconds after you turn the computer off. The 5 seconds delay allows printers to park their heads safely, in case you were wondering.

If you want to be really eco-friendly, you could use this with your telly, DVD, games console and so on. Powering down the entire home entertainment system when you switch the TV off.

You can’t, however, use it with your laptop for reasons not particularly well explained by OneClick. But if they say you cannot, then who are we to argue?

VERDICT
OneClick claims that the IntelliPanel can save an average of 35 watts per hour, and so pay for itself in less than a year of use.

Obviously they have never been to this reviewer's house, the amount of kit burning a hole in the planet's fuel resources here probably mean I will get my money back by the end of the week.

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