Smart plug-first step towards home automation

Smart plugs are the first easy step into home automation. (Residential Wiring and Smart Home Technology)

Smart home technology is becoming more and more popular day by day, and a large number of brands are slowly launching devices that can help you save time, power consumption, and even improve security inside the home. One of the hit products in this fast-growing sector is the so-called smart plug.

 

What is a smart plug?

 

It is a small plug that you plug into a standard socket and then simply plug your device into. 

Figure 1- Smart plug

You don't have to have anything but a router and a smartphone to install them - devices that can be found in more or less every household.

With a smart plug, you take control of devices in the house by sending commands remotely. A cheaper smart plug costs about twenty dollars, and all devices also work with most home assistants like those from Amazon or Apple.

The smart plug therefore plugs into a standard socket and comes paired with an app that you can use to control the connected device - even when you're on the road or away from home. Using the app, you’ll be able to do things like turn on the lights or air conditioner before you get home, make a coffee maker before you get up, and the like.

So, at a basic level, smart plugs allow you to control home devices from an app on your phone from anywhere.

Good apps even allow you to set a schedule for your smart plugs so you can turn devices on and off at specific times and on specific days.

Some smart plugs also go a step further and collect information on how much energy the device connected through it uses. This is an incredibly useful feature for the energy conscious consumer.

But when connected to a smart home platform, the smart plug becomes a very great device. Most smart plugs communicate using your home’s Wi-Fi network with a central control hub. The hub then uses your Wi-Fi to send data to an app on your phone.

 

Save electricity with a smart plug

 

With a smart plug, you can schedule your appliances to turn off and on at the perfect times. This means that whether its summer or winter, you can set a time for your air conditioner, fan or heater to turn on. Taking into account their use in periods of cheaper daily tariffs, in this way you can use existing household appliances in a much more economical way and reduce bills for consumed electricity. 

When you connect your device with a smart plug, you can keep track of how much electricity it consumes. If you do not want to buy more smart plugs, you can always connect the device to the smart plug one by one. Then you can keep track of how much each appliance consumes and you will know exactly what is consuming the most electricity. (Smart Plug WiFi Outlet with Energy Monitoring by Currant)

With this knowledge, you will no doubt be able to decide which appliance will shave most of your bill if you replace it. You can then also select the device to be plugged into the smart plug so you can turn it off when not in use and reduce standby power consumption.

Standby power is the power your electronic devices use when they are on standby. Standby power can make up to 10% of your electricity bills.

 While a single device consumes very little in annual electricity use, when multiplied by several dozen products, you're no longer talking about pocket change. What’s more, standby power use is roughly responsible for 1% of global CO2 emissions!

Some of the biggest standby power energy suckers are:

Heaters and ACs

Microwaves, blenders and other kitchen appliances

Laptops and desktop computers

Wi-Fi modems

Printers and scanners

TVs, Set-Top Boxes, DVD players and game consoles

Phone chargers

When you connect your appliances to smart plugs, you can switch them off from your phone when you’re about to leave the house or go to sleep. Or, you can schedule them to turn off when you know you won’t be using them. This way, you can save power without even thinking about it!

 

Increasing safety in the home with a smart plug

 

Any electrical device can ignite a fire or cause an electric shock, and each carries its own dangers, from frightening to life-threatening. A few common culprits are heaters, irons, toasters, microwaves, tumble dryers and dishwashers.

 

Ensuring that these devices are unplugged with a smart plug whenever you are not using them will reduce the likelihood that one of your devices will malfunction and catch fire when you are asleep or away from home. It is invaluable for peace of mind.

 

If you’re going on a weekend or traveling on vacation, you might want to create the illusion that you’re home. You can do this by installing a smart plug to control one or more lamps in the house.

All you have to do is plug the lights into a smart plug, and then you can set timers to turn on your lights at night to create the illusion of activity and alert intruders. You can travel relaxed knowing that your home takes care of itself.

Conclusion

A technological innovation that delights customers from the first moment of its launch on the market is a smart plug. By installing a smart plug, you will be able to control the included home devices with a simple application on your mobile device.

Technologically advanced homes do not have to cost a fortune. Smart plugs are an easy and cost-effective way to upgrade common devices, lighting and other electronic devices into smart home devices that you can control via your mobile device. Installing and using these smart plugs is very simple, but choosing the right one is not always the easiest task.

Smart plugs are the first and easiest step to which you can later upgrade the platform for comprehensive management and monitoring of your home. It is a system of interconnected devices that control the situation in the home, office, cottage - measure temperature, humidity and energy consumption, react to movements, turn on and off household appliances and video surveillance monitor events in the selected room. (Wireless Smart Home Bridge for Home Automation)

The brain of the whole system is a central unit that connects the installed sensors and allows control via mobile and web applications for iOS and Android. In addition to the central unit, the basic set is enriched with microclimate sensors (temperature + humidity) and movement in one device and smart plugs that turn the devices on and off while measuring energy consumption. The kit also includes a video surveillance camera that allows you to view events in the home and timely reactions.