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Remember The Clapper? The plug-in staple may have made for a catchy jingle in the 1980s, but it could also be considered as a primitive ancestor of today’s smart plug — that is, if you can say anything from a few decades ago is primitive. Smart plugs offer greater convenience than The Clapper ever did, letting you control your devices from an app on your phone, your voice, or a schedule.
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There are many ways to use smart plugs to automate your home, including turning dumb devices into smart ones, using them to strengthen your home’s security, or letting them bring more convenience to your life. Beyond using a smart plug for an old table lamp, you can also use them strategically to save on your utility bills, monitor your energy consumption, or enhance your home’s fire safety.
1. Deter would-be intruders
You can use a smart plug to automate lights when you’re out of town so that they switch on each night to make it appear as if someone’s home. Many people also use them to control outdoor lights on a schedule, ensuring their home’s exterior is well-lit for safety. Enhancing home security is a popular use for smart plugs. However, there are more ways to use them beyond the obvious.
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A smart plug can lock down your garage door opener, so you can cut power to it during the night or whenever you’re away. This strategy could prevent a thief from using an entry code or a stolen remote to enter your home. If you have a compatible motion sensor, you can set an automation with your smart plug to turn on a light whenever the sensor detects motion.
2. Create a motion-activated lighting setup
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I added motion-activated lighting to my bathroom without using a motion sensor wall switch so that my lights come on as soon as I enter. Instead of using a dedicated motion sensor connected to the light, I have an Echo Dot on the way into the bathroom, which has an occupancy sensor that turns on my lights through Alexa when someone walks in. You can do the same with any smart plug, Alexa, and an Echo Dot, which also serves as a smart speaker and platform to communicate with the voice assistant, not just an occupancy sensor.
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When someone enters the bathroom, Alexa on my Echo Dot says, “Hello, gorgeous,” and turns on the lights. The lights are set up with a smart switch, but you can do the same with a smart plug and a lamp. Additionally, you can also add a time for the light to stay on or an automation for the plug to switch off when people are not present. I keep my bathroom lights on for 15 minutes at a time, which ensures they always switch off, and I don’t have to walk around my house turning off all the lights my kids have left on.
Occupancy and presence sensors are more accurate than a simple motion sensor, as the latter can be tripped by any motion, even wind or car headlights in a window. As an aside, there are other presence sensors available, like the Aqara FP2, which can even detect people falling to alert another user.
3. Enhance climate control
Smart plugs are useful for keeping your home comfortable, especially when the weather’s too hot. I have a dumb fan connected to a smart plug, so I can ask Alexa to turn on my fan when it’s too hot and I’d rather not turn down the A/C’s temperature. While a fan doesn’t bring down the temperature, it circulates the air, making you feel cooler. This approach means you can save on your utility bills by setting your A/C a bit warmer and running a fan, which consumes fewer kWh than a central unit.
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If you have a smart thermostat or temperature sensor, you can also program your smart plug to automatically turn on your fan when the room is too hot. A space heater on a smart plug would serve the same purpose during winter, and a smart plug can automatically switch it off when a desired temperature is reached.
4. Plug in your hot tools
Whether you have a curling iron that you forget to switch off, or have someone at home who constantly leaves their hot tools on, a smart plug is a perfect solution. I use a smart plug for my flat iron, and I never have to wonder if I forgot to turn it off — I can check my smartphone and confirm that it is. If I leave the iron on, I can switch off the smart plug remotely. You could also set your hair tools to turn on in the morning as you get ready for the day.
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If you’re a handy or crafty person who has soldering tools and hot glue guns, smart plugs can also become your go-to safety device. Plugging in these tools with a smart plug allows you to easily turn them on and off, with the added security of controlling them from your smartphone. You can even control them using your voice with a virtual assistant, such as Amazon Alexa, Siri, or Google Gemini assistant, by just saying, for example, “Alexa, turn on the glue gun.”
5. Limit screen time at home
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Limiting my kids’ screen time is one of the most recent uses I’ve gotten from my smart plug. I’ve plugged in their playroom TV to a smart plug and can then set up schedules, control the device with my voice through Alexa, and switch it on and off from my phone according to their screen time.
While this strategy may not work with tablets, it can be applied to other electronics, such as gaming consoles and even your router, allowing you to go as far as switching off the Wi-Fi to limit your kids’ screen time.
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During the week, my kids have to do their homework and shower before they can watch TV, so I switch off the smart plug to the TV until they’ve completed their tasks. I even put the plug behind the TV using an extension cord so they can’t simply press the button on it when no one’s looking.
6. Save on utility bills
A smart plug gives you more control over what devices are drawing power and when to switch them off. Smart plugs allow you to turn off the power to vampire devices, which are those that consume more power than a smart plug when they’re plugged in but not in use. They also let you schedule times of day when these devices should be on, so your coffee maker doesn’t draw power during the night, for example.
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Many smart plugs offer energy monitoring, giving insight into which appliances in your house consume the most electricity. This information helps you make an informed decision about when to turn off devices.
Smart plugs still draw power when switched off, but that’s about 1 to 2 watts for a Wi-Fi-enabled device, not 5 to 10 watts that TVs and some gaming consoles draw when they’re off. Smart plugs need to draw a small amount of power while they’re off to maintain a network connection. However, plugs with low-energy connectivity protocols, like Zigbee or Z-Wave, may draw as little as 0.3 watts when idle.
7. Make older devices smart
This Roku Outdoor Smart Plug SE has kept my lights on a daily schedule for almost three years.
Maria Diaz/ZDNET
Making older devices smart is one of the best uses for smart plugs and why they were initially created. I put my holiday lights on smart plugs each year, which lets me set them on a schedule or ask one of the virtual assistants in my home to turn them on or off.
Coffee makers are great candidates for a smart plug. Just leave them prepped overnight and have them automatically turn on each morning while you’re getting ready for the day. This ensures you always have a hot coffee waiting for you when you enter your kitchen.
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Using a smart plug with an older router lets you reset your Wi-Fi network remotely, without needing to unplug your router and plug it back in. However, you may lose connection if your smart plug doesn’t use a non-Wi-Fi connectivity protocol, such as Bluetooth.
I also have an outdoor smart plug set up outside for my patio string lights, which turns on each day at sunset, ensuring we always have lighting on the deck.
