DON'T BOTHER--GO all cordless.

[rotation slim]

I had wiring problems with my house, so I temporarily plugged the cordless phone base into the good jack, and used it, and 2 cordless phones throughout the house. I have come to realize there is no reason to fix the wiring. I am looking hard at purchasing a new cordless base which has 4 handsets at Costco. Many come with the option to buy as many add on handsets as you wish. You can put the charging bases (plug into the 110v outlet) anywhere in the house, and it all works off the one base station. All you need is one good jack in the house. I think the base station and 4 phone set was about

140bucks.

This may not be an answer for everyone, but I figured why fix the wires, when I can just expand the technology that I am already using.

I am not talking cellular, this is the common cordless in-house units that you plug into your landline.

One warning, this system goes DOWN if you lose power, as do all cordless phones (that I know of, perhaps there are battery backed up base units that I am not aware of) it would be a good idea to keep an old-school basic phone around, if only to plug into the wall jack in the event power is lost. The old style ringers are powered by the phone line, and will still ring. Many, although not readers of this group, may not realize if you have all high tech phones in the house, the will go out in a power outage, they may still have dial tone, but have no power to operate the ringer. That may not be a huge problem if you have a cell phone, but it is something you should be aware of, as it is rather disconcerting to be at work, learning the power is out at your home, and you try to call to see if everything is OK, and it sounds (to the caller) like the phone is ringing, but in actuallity, in the home, there is no ringer going off, so people are home, but have not idea the phone is "ringing".

[m Ransley]

You are expanding cordless ,thats fine for you and your utility Co likes it to. I got rid of cordless finding for every unit I unplugged I save

2$ a month in electric costs. You want a base unit and 4 subsets, You may add 10$ a month to your electric bill. I figure this, with corded you already paid for the power, so it is free. You would be suprised how much of your electric bill is used in TV ,Vcr, stereo, radio, microwave, GFI ,etc standby power wasters. Overall Ive gone from 450 Kwh a mo. to 135-150 from re-thinking everything. Keep adding if you wish, but all our " toys " plugged in you pay for every month to your utility Co. Get a Kill a Watt meter and check things for yourself.

[Old Fangled]

[e-mail] (m Ransley) wrote in news:24753-419B7424-9@storefull-

3134.bay.webtv.net:

What kind of power hogs were you using? At 8 cents per KwH, that means your phones would need to be using 25 KwH every month, or about 35 watts continuous power draw.

Mine draws less than 4 watts, which works out to 3 KwH a month. I pay 6 cents per KwH, so my phone costs me a maximum of 18 cents per month.

[m Ransley]

I pay .125 Kwh and probably measured at charging draw, Measure yours when batteries charge. I know new equipment that is meeting the new Gov standards have " Energy Star" labels and these can use 1/10 or less the power of older electronics in standby . My regular answering phone takes 20 watt continous. To measure power you need a Kill a watt or a good digtal clamp on meter. Reading wall transformers won`t be accurate.

[Roger]

I have come to realize there is no

I would keep at least one corded set. Otherwise, you are unreachable in the event of a power outage.

[MUADIB®]

Get a cell phone!.......they're cheap enough and you can buy one that is pay as you go, no contract if you don't need it often or use one hardly.

Just a suggestion.

The dark ages are over now............Newfangled ideas are sometimes worthwhile.

Remove "YOURPANTIES" to reply

MUADIB®

one small step for man,..... One giant leap for attorneys.

[wayne]

buy a small ups 350-500 and use it to protect you against power outages.

I only use cordless at my house I do have a corded phone in the closet just in case I have 5 base stations and have not noticed an increase in my electric bill?

[Old Fangled]

[e-mail] (m Ransley) wrote in news:14372-419B90FB-50@storefull-

3137.bay.webtv.net:

Yoicks -- that's a really high rate. Where do you live?

I did -- that's when it is drawing 4 watts. If the batteries are charged, it draws a bit less.

That is one power hungry phone -- sounds like a newer model is in order.

The wall wart is rated at 6 watts, so it's not all that far out. Certainly good enough for an estimate.

[John Gilmer]

Well, I have wires going to the computer modems (3) and a "regular" telephone in the kitchen and just one other cordless phone.

I find that voice quality of the "regular" phone to be superior to the cordless. Maybe its the extra surges you get in the country, but I end up having to replace the cordless system every 3 years or so and the "regular" telephone (partly electronic) every 5 years or so.

[m Ransley]

0.125 a KWH is high? Im in the midwest, .125 is not high from what I read, are not some areas west and east paying 0.15 - 0.16 Kwh. You can`t read Kwh cost on your bill. To figure it, it is total cost paid divided by KWH used.

[Jim Yanik]

MUADIB® wrote in news: [e-mail]:

Except that CPs become inoperative in natural disasters more than landlines do. I speak from experience,having gone thru Hurricanes Charley(one week w/o power) and Frances. CPs were inop while the landline was still good.

And one needs a cord to recharge their CP,even from a car.;-)

[John Gilmer]

Yep!

When I had a cell phone ("just in case") the only time I felt the need to use it was when I was on the side of the road because the rain was too heavy to safely proceed. Trouble was, that everyone else on the road will a cell phone came to the same conclusion and I wasn't able to make any calls because the local cells were utilitized to maximum capacity.

AND, for those who worry about such things, there is still some question about whether operating a radio transmitted a few inches from you brain is a good idea.

I go with the wires whenever I can.

[Greg G]

I have one further reason to want some "wired" phones in my house. I never have to guess WHERE THEY ARE. I'm not the principal phone user in my house, and as my daughter gets older, even SECOND place looks shaky. The cordless phones end up in all sorts of places.

Greg Guarino

[127.0.0.1]

i just bought an expandable phone system, 8 extra handset and the base is the only one plugged into the phone jack. each phone has a banner display showing each location and each has a charging station. if a handset gets lost, it can be paged from any other handset. they also have intercom and monitoring capabilities. radioshack has a sale on their

5.8 and 2.4 Ghz expandables.

-a|ex

[John Willis]

On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 02:24:30 GMT, "127.0.0.1" scribbled this interesting note:

Which does nothing for you if they are all left somewhere they shouldn't be and you go on an extended vacation. It happened to some friends of ours. They were days finding all the phones and getting them charged back up...all that time they were rather difficult to get ahold of.

-- John Willis (Remove the Primes before e-mailing me)

[127.0.0.1]

rule of thumb: make sure the phones are put back after use. i have 4 kids and many cordless phones. the only thing that disappears is the tv remote (i always have a spare i keep in a safe place).

with 8 handsets, i doubt very much that all 8 will get lost at the same time.

-a|ex

[John Willis]

On Fri, 19 Nov 2004 04:41:31 GMT, "127.0.0.1" scribbled this interesting note:

Saturation Theory. Anywhere you need one there will be one. Right?!:~)

-- John Willis (Remove the Primes before e-mailing me)

[Jim Yanik]

"127.0.0.1" wrote in news:yPcnd.3325$ [e-mail]:

Does the base operate/charge from the phone line power or from house power(wall-wart)? If the latter,then when the power goes out for any length of time,your phones become useless.

[127.0.0.1]

wall charger for each handset. and yes, when power goes out so do the phones.

not only do i keep a spare tv remote, but i also have my old corded analog phones stored safely. power outages are a rare ocassion that doesn't warrant extreme measures.

-a|ex

[MC]

I have a corded wall slimline phone that requires no extrenal power on the wall in the kitchen, That way I always know that will be there and available in an emergency, if power goes out and/or have to find in the dark, etc.

I would suggest having at least one corded phone connected in an easy to get to location always connected for emergencys