Money-saving Standby Saver hits Argos at £20

Most of us live with a friend or family member who just won't turn off standby, no matter how many times you tell them it's wasting you £40 a year. That's where gadgets which help you kill standby come in. The latest to go mainstream is the "as seen-on Dragons' Den" Standby Saver, which has arrived at Argos nationwide for £20 and claims a bunch of benefits over its rivals.

So what the hell is the Standby Saver and why would you want one?  Essentially, it's a multi-plug adapter for TV and the boxes below it, and it enables you to turn each device off entirely by simply using their normal remote controls (thanks to an infrared receiver which you place near your TV or home entertainment boxes). It should save you cash on the energy consumed by standby, and cut your carbon footprint to boot. I've tested most its rivals, and it's true the Standby Saver has some aces up its sleeve. Let's take a look at them.

1. You can set it to leave Sky boxes on standby

This is really useful. Two of the Standby Saver's six sockets allow you to exempt a device from being fully powered off. For example, if you have a TV, DVD player, Xbox 360, amplifier and Sky+ box, you probably don't want to leave the first four on standby. The Sky box, however, can be left standby to record that Heroes series two of that you've programmed it to record. Most standby-killing devices don't offer this option, though the TV version of OneClick's Intellipanel does support keeping one device on standby.

2. It's cheap

Largely true. Although there are cheaper options (Ecoelectrical's £17 one) they don't support keeping one device on standby and won't let you power stuff off using your remote controls. Most similarly-specced devices are much pricier: the TV Intellipanel, for example, will set you back £40.

3. Its own power usage is low

The Standby Saver uses less than 1W. Why? It uses that power to look out for infrared signals from your remote controls, meaning you can power up your TV or DVD player without getting up. One competitor, the Powersafer, does the same thing but uses 8 watts -- not very frugal and green.

4 It's rated at 13A, unlike its competitors

False. Both the OneClick and Ecoelectrical products support 13 amps.

5 It was first

Sure, the Standby Saver first on Dragon's Den, but not first with the idea (the Powersafer's been around for years) and certainly not first to market.

For more details, hit Standby Saver's official site or go down to your local Argos to pick one up on the cheap.

Have you used any of these standby-killing gadgets? Or do you think they're a waste of money? Do you think a device like the Standby Saver would change your habits?