Shop E Store Do more than just control your lamps
They are one of the cheapest and most popular intelligent domestic devices, but most smart plugs end up spending their entire life by lighting or off the lamps.
Of course, they are excellent in that work, but they have much more potential. We are here to give some good uses for smart plugs, one of the most useful devices to use in your smart home.
Able to control virtually any device that connects to a socket, smart plugs only need a little thought and some toys to be able to do fun and useful things, such as saying when the washing is ready, or turning on their security cameras when he leaves the house.
Before starting, it is worth running through some things. First, smart plugs only work with devices that have physical/off physical switches.
For example, if you want a fan to turn on or deactivate, you need a physical switch on the fan to give life back when the power returns; Use a Dyson fan and only enter waiting mode when the power is turned on.
Secondly, you must choose the best intelligent plug for the work you are looking to complete. The characteristics in the smart plugs include voice control with Alexa or the Google assistant, IFTTT support, homekit integration and the energy tracking option using platforms such as Matter or Smartthings.
Third, make sure it is compatible with your existing intelligent domestic system. If you run your home on smartthings, for example, it must be a Z-Wave or Zigbee plug, it is most likely to be Bluetooth, Wi-Fi or matter.
However, if you do not have an intelligent domestic system, you can still use smart plugs.
Wemo, Awair and The Ligu devices have their own applications that you can use to establish schedules and control what is connected to your plug.
1. Control your smart cameras
Smart security cameras are a brilliant way to monitor their home, but it may be difficult to handle exactly when they record. An intelligent plug can solve this allowing you to cut the feed when you do not want to record and turn on the food when you need monitoring.
To get the best results, think about how you can control the plug. I have a camera in a garden office, connected to a smartthings outlet. When Yale’s intelligent blockade is unlocked, the camera goes out; When the lock is blocked, the camera comes back to.
A Amazon Alexa routine is another great control method. Add the intelligent plug that your camera is connected to your greeting/farewell routine and activation activation to automatically turn on and off when you greet or goodbye to your smart speaker.
If you prefer geofencing, use an Applet Iftt to turn on your cameras when you leave and go when you return home.
Why not have an intelligent button hidden somewhere in your home too? For example, hit one in your room and turn on the cameras on the ground floor with a fast touch at night and then turn them off easily in the morning.
2. Pre-heat your room
If you are using a space heater to heat a garage or a construction, an intelligent plug is a perfect way to control it, allowing you to light or deactivate the heating remotely, that way the room is hot when it comes there and may be sure that it is not working while it is out.
If you want a degree of automation, let’s say it maintains a minimum temperature, all you need is an intelligent temperature sensor. For example, the Samsung Smartthings multipurpose sensor has a thermometer, which you can use to program an automation to turn off its heater when it reaches an established temperature and when the air is submerged below a minimum temperature.
You can use similar rules with a device such as Awair Indoor Air Quality Monitor and IFTTT. With IFTT, you can also use a secondary heater to give an impulse to your existing system, let’s say the heater of a fan when the thermostat of its nest requires heat.
3. Help to your home
If your home is too humid, you can get the growth of the mold; Too dry, and can have breathing problems and cracked skin. With smart plugs you can control the environment, pointing to a relative humidity level of 45%: they do not want to exceed 50%or less than 30%.
Use a dehumidifier to reduce moisture, or a humidifier to add moisture to the air. To control both, you will also need an intelligent air monitor, such as Awair’s second generation, or the Awair Glow C, which also functions as an intelligent plug. This sensor has a complete IFTTT channel that allows you to control the devices when the humidity goes above an adjustment point or when it falls below a defined point.
With some applets, you can, for example, turn on a humidifier when moisture falls below 35%, but turns off when it reaches 45%. If you have a dehumidifier, you can activate it when moisture increases above 50% and off when you reach 40%. That way, you can have the perfect control level.
4. Turn your smart boiler
Of course, you can buy smart boilers with built-in Wi-Fi and its own Alexa Voice Control, but they are expensive. If you have an electric tea and an intelligent plug, just do your own.
Connect the kettle in your smart plug, turn off the plug, fill your ketch with water and turn on the kettle switch. When you are ready to boil water, just ask Alexa to take care of him and be ready.
You can also establish a schedule in the Smart plug OA application through a Alexa or Google Assistant routine, so that you can wake up and have boiling water ready for your cuppa. These methods also apply to a coffee maker with a physical switch, also, providing a cup of hot Joe as soon as he wakes up.
5. Locks of thieves
If you have an intelligent plug with a distance mode, such as the range of Belkin Wemo plugs, they may be linked and randomly lurked and randomly.
Connect some lamps on them and program them to automatically turn on and turn off, simulating someone at home. You could try a similar trick with a good fashionable radio, so that it seems that people are inside.
6. Turn off the TV with your voice
Connect your TV to an intelligent plug and get instant voice control: you will never need to get up from the couch to find the remote control again.
Act or turn off using Siri, Alexa or Google, depending on the preferences of your smart plug. In addition, if you want to turn it off to take your children to the dinner table, take your smartphone and silence it in silence (until you hear the screams of pain from the living room).
7. Know when the laundry is over
Intelligent plugs with built -in energy monitoring, such as Eve Energy, Belkin Wemo Insight and Wyze Plug, will send you a notification when the use of energy falls below the point it establishes.
This is a useful way to monitor what is happening. For example, if you have the vision connected to a washing machine, you can receive a notification when it is finished, instead of trusting the little reliable timer in the front.
8. Keep the battery charge
If you have wireless tools for DIY or garden, then you are not loaded when you need them. An intelligent plug can help. Connect the charger in one and let it go out. When you know that the tool will need, just turn the smart plug a few hours before and go to a completely charged battery.
If you only want to keep the batteries overcome, you can establish a scheduled routine to light the battery charger, say once a week and again after a few hours. Then, your tools will be ready when you want to use them.
Smart plugs have a wide range of uses, all of which can add convenience, save energy and, in general, help at home, what else could you ask for?
9. Automating your Christmas holidays
If you are still turning on and off your Christmas lights by hand, or trusting in outdated timers, then you should really be on the mischievous list of Santa. We are in the third decade of the 21st century. Get with the times, grandfather.
The obvious thing is to put them in all their festive lights and create some groups, perhaps differentiate between interiors and exteriors, and have a general group as well. In that way, a simple, “Ok Google, turn on Christmas lights” or a “Alexa, lights the festive lights outdoors” You will create instant “magic ‘and you will save you walking through the house lighting a switch load.
However, only an intelligent complement is not given up. Think big. A toy train in a Lapia scene? A giant inflatable snowman for the front grass? The possibilities are endless.
10. Cook your dinner
If you are not yet part of the snapshot revolution and you still trust an old pot of slow cooking pot, then the good news is that you can do things a little more automated by introducing an intelligent plug.
Most traditional slow kitchens simply have a configuration for the high / low / kept button. Therefore, it is simple enough to add an intelligent plug to the mixture and then have its slow cooking pot at the desired time; Simply turn the dial to the configuration that you want and turn on the switch, but leave the plug off, before going to work.
