Belkin showing people how to conserve electricity at home with their new home energy lineup...

Belkin, who leads the industry in, ummm...plugs, has introduced four new products to the market that will be available Mid-July. These are great products for people at home that are trying their best to reduce unwanted power vampires from their home.

The first product is the Conserve Smart AV

The Conserve Smart AV features a "green" outlet, in which you plug your television into, and in the other outlets you plug in the rest of your entertainment system. When the television is shut-off, the rest of the surge protector then powers down, reducing the energy usage of the rest of your entertainment center. It will retail for $29.99.

The next up is Conserve Socket

The Conserve Socket has a timer for your plug and automatically powers down the socket after that allotted time. The user can select from three settings, 30 minutes, 3 hours, or 6 hours. Perfect for those using a coffee maker in the morning, and always worrying about if you turned it off. The Conserve Socket will retail for $9.99.

Next is the Conserve Valet

The Conserve Valet is for all of us that have a lot of gadgets, which now a days seems to be more and more. It has four charging stations for your mp3 player, phone, or whatever other peripheral that you might have that can charge via USB hub. What is great about this product is that it will sense when your item is fully charged and shut-off the plug charging that item. No more cell phones charging on the kitchen counter for 14 hours anymore. The Conserve Valet will retail at $39.99.

And last but not least, and what I find the most interesting The Conserve Insight

The Conserve Insight excited me the most out of all of these products. The Conserve Insight will give you real-time information on how many watts a product that is plugged into it is using. It also tells you how much CO2 that a product is emitting, and the biggest feature to most will be this: The Conserve Insight will tell you how much money, in real time, that you are spending on keeping that device plugged in. This product will remove all of smoke and mirrors of trying to figure out how much electricity a device is really using. Knowledge is power, and given this knowledge you can figure out how to use your power. Then you can experiment with different power configurations for different devices (like maybe putting a surge protector on that microwave that you don't use the clock on it for anything). At $29.99 I feel that the cost could be made up in no time with the money you could save.

These look to be exciting products for everyone, from the lazy man (the Conserve Smart AV), to the person that loves numbers (The Conserve Insight). I hope to get my hands on a few of them in Mid-July and let you know how they are, especially the Conserve Insight. If anyone else gets to try and of these out, let me know what you think!

***edit 6/22/10 received an e-mail from a reader that is suggesting some of the other Belkin's products as well that are already out:

"We have a similar Belkin product. Power strip with wireless switch. ( and 2 switches that dont turn off if need be) . On our way to bed we hit the switch and it shuts down power for out big power sucking items. Love it!
http://www.amazon.com/Belkin-BG108000-04-Conserve-Energy-Saving/dp/B001GQ2W6W/ref=pd_cp_e_1

 ---Nichole"

Thanks Nichole! Knowing that someone out there already loves part of the Conserve line by Belkin makes these that much more promising! Looks like these are quality products, and like I said, I hope to get one or a few of them in my hands in a month. ***

---Justin J. Stewart