Why Smart Plug is best to upgrade to a smart home?

What is a smart plug?

The smart plug is a small and cheap device that can be connected with all your home devices at the same time using your home Wi-Fi network, and which by you can control it all with a touch via your smartphone or using your voice via your smart speaker assistant.

The smart plug doesn’t require any installation or setup; you just plug it to your wall outlet plug and make sure to connect it to your home network.

What can a smart plug do?

• The smart plug can help you remote controlling almost any device in your home via the app installed on your smartphones, that’s will allow you to turn off your home lights for example even if you’re not in home.
• With a smart plug you can for example adjust your TV sound using your voice; the voice will be analyzed by your virtual assistant and send the signal to the smart plug to do the job.
• The smart plug allows you to automate anything in your home just as you want it  and schedule any device for example if you want your home warmer after your work day, you can rise the temperature of your house five minutes before you’re in.
• You don’t have to worry anymore about tracking your home energy because smart plugs can do it for you and give you detailed information about the cost and the use of electricity of each device connected to the system. 
• Smart plugs can also turn off any device automatically when it’s not used which helps to economize the energy and lower the electricity bill.
• Smart plugs provide protection for your devices in case of any energy problem, and can notify you to avoid a short circuit, electric shock, fire or any other similar situation.

Do smart plugs use more electricity?

Smart plugs in general are not designed to waste energy or to consume more electricity but the use of many devices can increase the cost of energy. So we should respect some advices before using smart plugs:

• Do not plug many smart plugs in the same side and try to put them in different corners for better control and less energy consummation.
• Connect devices for daily uses only and not all your home devices this will save more energy for you.
• Do not ignore smart plug notifications and make sure to control electricity use for each device and try solutions to decrease its cost.

Can a smart plug lower my electricity bill? 

A smart plug can help you to find the device that consumes electricity the most and gives you more information about energy for every single device, so you can manage a strategy to save your money and energy.

The smart plug scan your home for activity and turn off any unused device automatically after a while which can reduce your monthly electricity bill.

You don’t have to worry about forgetting lights on or devices plugged on, because you can control it from distance and check your home situation even if you’re traveling. The smart plug keep you updated and let you know if there is any plugged on device.

With fixing a schedule to your electronic devices your electricity bill will decrease for sure. Each device will consume electricity in its effective time which will limit wasted time and energy to more than 60%. 

Do smart plugs need Wi-Fi?

Wireless smart plugs can support Bluetooth or any other way to connect with your smartphone, but it needs a home network to connect with other devices. In the other side wired smart plugs do not need any network to be connected.

Some smart plugs need a good Wi-Fi signal to give you full control; we are talking here about indoors smart plugs.  

How do I use Alexa smart plug?

Amazon has made a Wi-Fi smart plug to combine with Alexa voice commands, it’s easy to use and setup, it’s cheap for only 25$ you can control and schedule your devices, but it doesn’t support power monitoring or compatibility with Siri or Google assistant.

For that you’ll need last version Alexa app installed on your smartphone and 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi network.

First, you plug in the device and turn the app, select the device and proceed to setup.

The LED signal will turn blue if the setup was correct, if not enable Bluetooth and location services on the smartphone, you can also use the barcode to connect your smartphone with the smart plug, you can check the website for more information.

Next, all you need to do is to connect your plug to a lamp, a coffee maker, a fan or any other device you want to control. Now, you’re ready for your first command ask Alexa to turn it on or off for you. You can also create your own routine for that device or regroup it with others to control it all as a set.