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Smart Plugs: Make Every Appliance Smart

January 30, 2023

An introduction to smart plugs for home automation setups and their advantages

Have you ever woken up on a workday, pulled off the charging cable from your phone, only to realize that it is dead because you never really flipped on the switch in your sleepy stupor the previous night? You’re not alone – it has happened to the best of us.

Imagine instead that when you went to sleep, your smart home system ensures that the wall socket your charger plugs into is turned on as part of your routine. Sounds like a nifty little convenience doesn’t it? That would be a smart plug for you. 

What are smart plugs?

Smart plugs could be one of two things. 

  • A regular wall socket that is controlled by a smart switch
  • Stand-alone smart plugs that connect to a regular wall socket

Both these devices would effectively behave in the same way. While the former setup can convert any regular wall socket into a smart plug and is also a great way to retrofit, a smart plug can be bought in retail but becomes expensive for large-scale applications.

The Smart Plug Advantage

Smart plugs, like all things smart in a home automation setup, offer invaluable conveniences. Starting from the most desired ability to control them via voice assistants like Amazon Alexa and Google Home Assistant to the convenience of adding the plugged-in devices to your scenes and schedules, smart plugs have it all. These combined with the life-saving feature of controlling smart plugs remotely make them the perfect companion to the meticulously organised and scatterbrain alike.

Use Cases

Look around your home and you will find at least 5 appliances that are a part of your daily routine. From your coffee maker to your lawn sprinkler, it only makes sense to automate certain tasks that shouldn’t need your supervision per se.

By tagging the smart plug against the plugged-in appliance it becomes easy to make it a part of your daily routines using smart home automation applications. Once done you can group such devices like your geyser, coffee maker etc that should ideally turn on 15 minutes before your morning alarm goes off. 

Now a word of caution. It may be tempting to go overboard with the use of smart plugs, after all it does offer the convenience of almost making everything smart. However, a consultation with your home automation experts could help you truly understand ideal use and help match the right kind of network infrastructure that your house needs to meet these requirements. A simple WiFi based network may not be sufficient if you have multiple smart devices, appliances and plugs working in tandem. 

Energy Savings

With your smart home automation setup and geared to make your life a walk in the park, it’s now time to be mindful of your energy consumption. With every modern day household having uninterrupted power supply the electricity bills are bound to go up with an increase in the number of devices being used. Smart home systems allow homeowners to rein in utility bills by ensuring that all unused appliances and devices are turned off and the house is put into energy saving modes when you are away at work or out on vacation. Smart plugs are one more tool in your tool box towards achieving these goals. 

The Right Plug-ins

Every homeowner’s dream is to build that perfect home that warmly welcomes him/her back after facing the taxing realities of the outside world on a daily basis. But it’s important to start off on the right foot and for that you need the right experts to guide you at outset. Toyama’s well trained and experienced experts can provide the perfect solutions helping you strike a right balance between costs and convenience. Get in touch with us here and we can get you started off on your smart home automation journey.