Treegreen energyEGG review

The energyEGG is designed to save power by switching off devices at the socket when you’re not in the room. The kit consists of an infrared motion sensor and a wireless control plug; when the infrared sensor no longer detects movement, it will turn off the plug. You can set the sensor to wait for between five minutes and half an hour before turning off the power, so you have time to leave the room and come back in again without it turning off all your kit. One sensor can control up to 12 plugs at distances up to 20m – additional plugs are £7 from www.uswitch.com.

We think the energyEGG is most likely to be used to switch off TVs and home cinema kit when the sitting room is unoccupied. We plugged our TV and home cinema amplifier into the control plug and sat the infrared sensor in front of our TV, set to switch off after five minutes. When we left the room and came back over five minutes later, our kit was switched off – we could turn it straight back on with the button on top of the infrared monitor.

When we sat in front of the TV for ten minutes keeping as still as possible, the sensor still picked up our presence and left the home cinema kit switched on. The system works well but, even if you leave your TV and amplifier on standby for 20 hours a day, the energyEGG will only save you around £25 a year.