On Tue, 15 Apr 2008 16:50:29 GMT, The Medway Handyman wrote:

You can get vacs with a socket outlet on, so you can plug a power tool
into it. When you start the power tool the vac switches on, stopping
the power tool switches off the vac.

Yes the Earlex PowerVac:

http://earlex.co.uk/html/wd_html/wd1200p.htm

Cheap, cheerful, does the job. The Power take off is limited to 1800W but
as the Vac is 1200W that probably has more to do with the loading on a
single 13A plug (3000W +/- a tad depending on voltage).

There are probably other similar vacs about.

With the "power saver" plug strips I'd watch what the maximum load through
the monitored socket is and what the total load for the switched ones is.

--
Cheers
Dave.