Does StopWatt work if I only plug it in at night?

My take changed a bit over time. When I first looked into one of these, I figured it was the kind of thing you just leave in and forget about, because that is how it gets described. Then I actually thought about how I would use it and realized I would probably only want it running during the hours when the house is busiest anyway, with the fridge, washer, and whatever else going at once. That felt more practical to me than having it sit there overnight when almost nothing is drawing power.

The catch is that these things are not instant. If you only plug it in for a few hours at night, you are basically giving it the quietest stretch of the day to do its thing, which seems like the least useful window. I get wanting to avoid running it constantly, but the whole point seems to be steady coverage over time, so limiting it to a few nighttime hours kind of works against that.

What I am not sure about is whether the effect builds up in the device itself or resets once you unplug it. Nobody really explains that part. So I would say if you are going to bother, plug it in during your normal active hours instead of overnight, and accept that it is a background thing you stop noticing. Otherwise it just becomes another gadget you fiddle with.

I don’t really buy the idea that it has to be on all the time to do anything. The way it was explained to me, it’s just sitting there smoothing out what’s coming through the outlet while it’s plugged in, so if it’s only on at night then it’s only doing that at night. Seems kind of obvious when you think about it that way.

For me the bigger thing would be placement. I had one in a bedroom outlet for a while and barely noticed anything, then moved it to the outlet near the kitchen where most of our stuff actually runs and that felt like a better spot. So I’d worry less about the hours and more about where it’s sitting. Running it a few hours a night isn’t going to hurt anything, but it’s probably not doing much either if it’s not near anything drawing power.

I tried unplugging mine during the day for a while and honestly the green light was still on at night so it’s doing something, but I ended up just leaving it in anyway. Plugging and unplugging it constantly got annoying fast. If you’re only doing nights I’d say just pick one outlet and stick with it.

I only plug mine in when I remember, usually evenings, and it’s been in the same spot for about six weeks. Green light comes on either way. I don’t need it running while I’m at work, that’s just my preference.

I don’t think night only is enough to see anything. Mine has been in since March and the only time the light flickers is when the dryer kicks on.

Mine actually did fine with nights only. I started doing that in April because it’s near my bedroom TV and that’s when I’d remember it, and I still noticed the picture stopped doing that little flicker during storms. So nights worked for me.

Nights only is fine, that’s when it matters most anyway.

I don’t really get why people assume these things need to be running around the clock to do anything. I’ve had mine on a timer strip for a while now, mostly just to keep it off during peak hours when I don’t want extra stuff drawing anything, and it still does its thing. The green light comes on when it’s powered, that’s it. There’s no battery, no memory, nothing to “build up” over time. You plug it in, it does whatever it does, you unplug it, it stops. Night only is basically the same as running it during the day, just at different hours. If anything I’d say it’s a little better since your house is quieter electrically at night anyway. People acting like unplugging it resets some progress bar are just guessing. Mine’s been fine either way.

I don’t think running it only at night is enough. Mine stayed plugged in for a couple months before I noticed anything different, so a few hours here and there probably isn’t going to cut it.