Green Daily

When it comes to energy savings, every little bit helps. You probably already know you can save money and reduce your carbon footprint by replacing your light bulbs with compact florescent bulbs and by shutting off the TV, radio, and lights when you leave the room.

But what about those devices that you habitually always leave on in the office, like your printer, scanner, speakers, and even your computer monitor. Sure, you know you should turn them off when you shut down our computer, but sometimes it's easy to forget.

That's where the Ecostrip comes in. This handy little gadgets looks (and for the most part works) just like any power strip. There are six sockets for plugging in all your electrical doohickeys. And there's a USB cable that connects to your PC. When you shut down your PC, the Ecostrip will register the lack of current and power down all of your other devices.

The Ecostrip will set you back $35, which is substantially more than a typical power strip. But if you can never remember to shut down your computer peripherals, you could easily save that much on your electric bill in a matter of months. The Ecostrip has been available in Europe for a few years now, and is set to make its American debut soon.

Of course, in order to work, the Ecostrip will need to draw a tiny amount of power from your PC, which means you could actually be using a bit more power when it's plugged in. But we're guessing its power draw is fairly low, and comes with the assurance that you will only ever need to hit the power switch on one device in your office.

[via Everything USB]]