Have you ever wished that your appliances could do the thinking for you? That your house would just run itself? Or even that you could save energy without having to run around the house every night to switch off all the power points?
Finally, there is an easy, way to make your wishes come true! Smart plugs are the first easy step into home automation, and they will have you wondering how you ever got by without them.
Here are 10 awesome things that you can do with a Smart Plug:
1. Automate your Christmas lights
For those of us that embrace the Christmas spirit and put up Christmas lights for the festive season, we are always faced with the dilemma of when to turn them off at night. Obviously we want to leave them on for at least a few hours in the evening when people are still out and about and can enjoy them. But when it’s 10 or 11pm and you’re snuggled up on the couch or in bed, the last thing you want to do is go outside and turn them off.
Then there’s remembering to turn them on – what’s the point of putting all the effort into putting them up if you only remember to turn them on twice a week? And often when you do remember to put them on, it’s too early and still light, and so would be a waste of power.
Cue Smart Plug to the Christmas-light rescue. Plug all of your sets of lights into one power board, then connect that to power through a smart plug. Then you can set your lights to run on a schedule for a couple of hours in the evening, at exactly the right time. Christmas cheer optimised! Now, if you could just get a smart plug to do your Christmas shopping for you…
2. Pinpoint energy-hungry appliances and save on your next big purchase
Have you ever wondered how much it really costs to run your appliances? Or considered upgrading to more energy-efficient models, but feel unsure about which appliance will give you the biggest savings?
When you connect your appliance through a smart plug you can track how much electricity it consumes. If you don’t want to buy 10 smart plugs, you can always plug one an appliance at a time to a smart plug. You can then track how much each appliance consumes and you will know you exactly what’s using the most electricity.
With this knowledge, you will be able to decide, without a doubt, which appliance will shave the most of your energy bill if you replace it. You can also then select an appliance to keep attached to the smart plug, so you can switch it off when it’s not being used and cut down on its standby power consumption.
3. Enjoy the perfect temperature
Have you ever wished your air-con would just come on by itself on a really hot day so that when you arrived home the house was nice and cool? Or that your heater would switch itself on in the morning 20 minutes before you wake up so that getting out of bed is just that little bit easier?
What about if you have unexpected guests arriving? You mum calls you while you’re still at work and she’ll be getting to your house an hour before you get home? Wouldn’t it be nice if you could switch on the heating for her so she can relax in comfort while she waits for you?
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. Welcome to the future, where you get to enjoy your home at the perfect temperature when you get home from a hard day at work when you get up in the morning, or just any time really!
4. Optimise your mobile and toothbrush charging stations
Your toothbrush and mobile phone are two things that you need to charge quite often, and yet they do not need to be charged for 8 hours plus at a time. In fact, it’s actually bad for their batteries if they remain on the charger for longer than necessary.
Batteries do not enjoy eternal life. Most smartphone manufacturers say their devices rate their batteries at 300-500 cycles. But, for many of us, it’s built into our routine to put our phone on the charger when we go to bed so that it’s fully charged and ready to go for the next day.
What we really need, is the ability to let our phone or toothbrush charge for 2 – 3 hours before the power is disconnected. A smart plug lets you do just this. By connecting your charger through a smart plug, you can run it on a schedule that automatically turns off the power at a set time. This could save you hundreds of dollars in new batteries (or thousands in new phones!) over time.
5. Reduce your chance of electrical fires
Any electrical appliance has the potential to start fires or cause an electric shock, and each brings with it its own dangers, ranging from frightening to life-threatening. A few of the common culprits are toasters, microwaves, clothes dryers and dishwashers.
Ensuring these appliances are switched off using a smart plug whenever you’re not using them will cut down on the chance that one of your appliances will have a fault and catch fire when you are sleeping or out of the house. How’s that for peace of mind?
Time to bring some smart plugs into your life.
If you are a control freak, the Smart Plug gives you more control than ever. Or, if you just want to save energy, save money, and not have to worry about remembering which switches you turned on that day, you can let the Smart Plug be the brainpower, while you get on with more important things…
