Decide what to buy | the Reevoo.com blog, featuring news on TVs, cameras, laptops, mp3 players & other gadgets, shopping tips and deals, reviews and more

Heading to a festival this year? Even if you’re not, the Orange Power Pump can be used for all manner of outdoor parties. It’s a foot pump that powers a tiny generator that will in-turn, charge all your gadgets. No electricity required and with a minute or so on the pump, you’ll have enough charge for a 5 minute call. All that and you’re helping out the environment too.

Watch this space for a price and release date but no doubt it will be available in time for all this summer’s festivals, just head towards the Orange stand.

[Orange]

Currently appearing in [Coolest Gadgets]

With households around the land worrying that it’s time to tighten belts, we thought we’d help show you how you can get the most from your purchases and do your bit to save the planet at the same time – after all, who wants another summer like we’ve just had?

In addition to Reevoo’s normal job, of using real customer reviews to help you decide what to buy, Reevoo now allows you to search by which household products are the most energy efficient. With energy prices up by 20% this year, we thought this was pretty smart, as well as green.

So, what difference will this really make?

We took one of the market’s top energy rated fridge freezers, the Indesit BAAN134, which has an A* energy efficiency rating and carries the Energy Savings Trust Feature, and compared it to your average light bulb.

At roughly HALF the power usage of a 60 watt lightbulb, not only will the Indecit keep your beers chilled but it might tempt you to live by fridge-light during fast approaching autumnal months.

We wouldn’t expect you to compromise on quality either, the Indesit scored 9.2 out of 10 by those that bought it and 93% of buyers would recommend it.

So, if you’re interested in making your home as cost and energy efficient as possible, or just want to find out which washing machine uses less power than your iPhone, check out the home product reviews on Reevoo.

[Guest post by Matt]

We’ve got some great products in this week’s Green Piece. The first one will save you money on your water and electricity and it will help to save the planet too. It’s a shower head with a difference. The Oxygenics BodySpa Water Saving Shower Head, as well as saving water, also works as a mini spa treatment in your own home. It uses a narrow channel in the shower head to squeeze all of the water out. This squeezing causes negative pressure which sucks air into the shower head. Then the air mixes with the water and creates a lovely invigorating shower.

You save on water because less is allowed through the narrow channel. You also don’t have to worry that you’ll have a rubbish shower because the air and the extra pressure makes it seem more powerful than your ordinary shower. Less water also means less heat to warm it up so you save on heating too. Bonus. There’s also no need to worry if you’re in a hard-water area as the inside of the shower head are made of high-tech, corrosion-resistant plastic with an extremely smooth surface that prevents the build-up of lime scale. Did they think of everything or what?

The only thing to note is that it won’t work with low pressure water systems e.g. Electric or Venturi Showers. If you’re up on your shower speak, you’ll need minimum water pressure of 20psi (that’s pound per square inch). You can pick one up for £39.95 from Green Warehouse.

The next handy device is called an Ecobutton and it attaches to your computer with a USB cable. Every time you have a break to make tea, pop to the loo or answer the phone, you just press the Ecobutton and it will power-down your computer for you.

According to the guys over at Nigel’s Eco Store, when your average computer goes on standby automatically, it’s programmed to use a ‘level 1’ standby which means that it still uses 50 per cent of the energy. Apparently the Ecobutton saves even more energy by using a ‘level 3’ standby. They estimate it’ll save you around £50 and 135kg of carbon a year.

Last but not least is the Eco Stapler. This is a stapler…without staples. This neat little device will perform some cutting and folding magic in the same time as it takes you to operate a normal stapler. Waste online  say that “If everyone in UK offices saved just one staple a day, we’d save 72 tonnes of metal a year”. Not bad for a £4.99 product. You can only staple three pages at a time, mind. So if you’re planning on producing a document that will easily take out a few trees, I’d suggest using a proper stapler or more importantly, ask yourself if you really need to use that much paper.