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Jeff Gunther
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One Week in

Jeff Gunther wrote this Jan. 24, 2009.
About one week in and sadly I haven't actually accomplished much, although I have learned a lot more about what my options are. While I was originally in love with Sam's guide, it occurred to me that at time I don't know when exactly I will want to turn everything off, so a remote system might work better. I found these:

http://www.geeks.com/details.asp?invtid=BH9936-3&cat=CON

that look like they could work, although I see some downsides there too. Going to think about it a bit more and then probably buy these. If anyone knows of a similar, but better, product, let me know.
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Sam Fladung Jan. 24, 2009
Any idea what the parasitic load from that would be? It would need to always draw power while "listening" for the remote, and unless well optimized could draw a decent amount of power.
Steven Skoczen Jan. 25, 2009
The real question about using sam's guide seems to me to be if there's an outside time that you're sure will be when you're done using the system 99% (90%?) of the time.

If yes, whether that's 15 minutes or 4 hours, the timer system still seems like the best solution to me, for the reason he mentions above.
Jeff Gunther Jan. 25, 2009
Yea, I hadn't thought of that. My reasoning was that I would probably end up overshooting on the timer, and that would waste energy, but quite possibly not as much as the other system would use up. The other nice thing about the remote is no soldering, it's just a plug-in thing. I think I will probably have to go with the original plan though, seeing as the goal is reducing parasitic loads.
Sam Fladung Jan. 25, 2009
The trick with the timer is that if you leave it on a little too long it won't hurt much in terms of power draw.

Assume you overshoot by 10 minutes every time you use the timer. You would need to remember to turn off the device approximately 99.99% of the time to match this. (Assuming it stays on for an extra 24 hours if you forget). With the timer you cannot forget to turn it off.

Can you put the stuff on a switch (maybe a lightswitch) that is in easy reach? That way you wouldn't have to find the remote etc. I suspect that the remote will be tough to keep track of.

If you don't want to solder, you actually do it without using a soldering iron. Just carefully cut the outer jacket of the cord, and cut the live wire and screw it down into the timer. There are a couple of other ways to do it too. Unfortunately no one makes one of these for some unknown reason. I would think it would have a decent market.
Sam Fladung Jan. 25, 2009
Oops, that should have been 99.3%
Sam Fladung Jan. 25, 2009
Oops, that should have been 99.3%
Jeff Gunther Jan. 26, 2009
I will give cutting the wire and screwing it down a shot. I don't know where I have a soldering iron, but I do have a lot of electrical tape. I wish I could just put in a light switch, but it's a lot of work, and I live in a fire station and they wouldn't be happy with me if I did that.
Steven Skoczen Jan. 27, 2009
As a side question for those of us soldering-not-experienced-but-often-burn-ourselves inclined, are there any resources you (Sam or Jeff) recommend for learning to solder?

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