Smart plugs have kept up with the continued growth into the 4th industrial revolution, as part of smart home infrastructure. They are becoming a norm in up and coming modern residences.
A smart home is a residence that uses internet-connected devices to enable the remote monitoring and management of appliances and systems, such as lighting and cooling. Smart home technology, also often referred to as home automation or domotics (from the Latin “domus” meaning home), provides homeowners security, comfort, convenience and energy efficiency by allowing them to control smart devices, often by a smart home app on their smartphone or other networked device.
A part of the internet of things (IoT), smart home systems and devices often operate together, sharing consumer usage data among themselves and automating actions based on the homeowners’ preferences.
One simple IoT device is the smart plug. Smart plugs are devices that sit between ordinary electrical outlets and the device you’re plugging in. So instead of plugging your coffee maker or television into a socket on the wall, you plug them into your smart plug. Usually these devices share one and the same basic functionality: control. This enables you to set a plug to switch on or off at a scheduled time.
In a nutshell, a smart plug is a plug that converts your appliance into a smart appliance. A smart plug works by allowing your “dumb” appliances to be connected via Wi-Fi or Bluetooth. This means that you can now control your appliances from your phone. Take note, there’s an app that comes with every smart plug brand.
How To Use Smart Plugs
A smart plug is very easy to install. Its basically a plug-n-play device but can save energy only when used properly. Here are some ways to consider when installing the smart plug devices:
1. Carefully choose which appliance to use smart plugs on.
If you are using a smart plug on the appliances that you barely use, then it’s no use to have. The assumption is that you don’t leave your appliances plugged and they are not consuming energy when unused and plugged.
If you want to see savings the next time you purchase power tokens, you should connect the smart plug on an appliance that has a vampire power draw. These equipment include, TVs, kitchen appliances, stereos, computers, etc.
2. Set the smart plug programs/rules properly.
Remember that you can set rules on the phone app? That’s what you can maximize if you want to save on electricity. Let’s say you’ve already identified the appliances that consume energy the most. What you can do now is make a set of rules that will automatically turn the appliance off when not in use.
For example, you can set automatic shutdowns for your entertainment units when you’re about to leave the house. You can sync this with your schedule, too.
3. Monitor your appliance consumption trends on the smart plug application.
Once you have set up the rules to manage your appliance operations, you can always monitor consumption trends on your mobile application.
You can understand your appliance energy efficiency with time and make decisions either to upgrade or change the way you use it.
This will in turn help you have some form of control of how you consume your energy based on specific appliances.
In my experience from the use of smart plugs especially on entertainment appliances in homes, has proven to help reduce consumption by up to 20% of the previous consumption.
Other appliances that the smart plug helps achieve a lot of energy savings is water dispensers and laptop chargers. So get your smart plug today from us and start reducing your electricity bills at home!
