Belkin Conserve Socket

The Conserve Socket is one of the simplest devices we tested, but arguably has the greatest potential for large-scale power savings. ‘Arguably’, because that depends on what’s plugged into it and how good your memory is.

Plug the Conserve Socket into the wall, plug your device into the Conserve Socket, and you’re ready to go. It’s off by default – press a button on the top and it switches on for either 30 minutes, three hours or six hours. You can choose between those three run-times via a sliding switch on the side.

If you’re forever leaving the heater, electric blanket or fan switched on, the Conserve could be the perfect answer. It’s a good option for those high-power devices where real savings can be made. If you’re already very careful to switch things off when you’re done with them, the Conserve Socket will save you nothing but a little effort. For $30, that may still be worth it.

A couple of annoying downsides: the time options are quite limiting (nothing between 30 minutes and three hours) and the ‘start’ button on top doesn’t double as a ‘stop’ button once the timer is running. If you want to power-off your device early, the only way is to use the wall switch that the Conserve Socket is plugged in to (impossible if it’s plugged into an unswitched powerboard), or to unplug the device entirely.