The Humble Smart Plug
One of the least expensive and most useful pieces of smart home tech you can buy
My smart home setup is filled with all sorts of fun technology. I love my Philips Hue smart lights, August smart locks, and of course the Nest thermostat. But this time of year, I really appreciate one of the more overlooked smart devices on the market.
I'm talking about the humble smart plug.
Basically, this little device let's you turn any ordinary plug-in electrical device into something much smarter and more versatile. They come in plenty of different sizes and shapes from a number of different companies. Personally, I've been partial to the Kasa plugs from TP-Link. Their app is well-designed and they seem to play nice with my Google Assistant smart hub with voice commands.
Why are smart plugs particularly useful this time of year? They make indoor and outdoor holiday lights so much more practical. I currently have two plugs outside that control Christmas lights on my garage and front yard trees. And inside, my Christmas tree lights and a set of indoor icicle string lights are also powered by the Kasa smart plug.
It took me all of two minutes to set up timers to have all the lights turn on and off at specific times of day. You also have the ability to schedule them with sun-up and sun-down if you want to get even more specific. You can set schedules for different days of the week and even customize the little app icons so you can easily tell the Christmas tree lights from the outdoor string lights at a glance.
In short, it makes the entire holiday lighting process so much smoother. And if you ever decide that you want to have the lights turn on outside of their normal schedule, you can just give a voice command to your closest smart speaker. "Hey Google, turn on the Christmas tree!" is one of the more satisfying demands I've ever given my device. You're saving energy, lowering your electric bills, and having a bit of holiday whimsy and magic as things turn on and off with just your voice.
With some of these smart plugs selling for less then 30 bucks, it's really affordable to add a little intelligence to your normally dumb lights or appliances. And if you're a power user, there are more and more complex plugs hitting the market that offer fun upgrades like real-time energy usage monitoring, multi-outlet strip design, and heavier duty outdoor durability (although my "non-outdoor" smart plugs have survived several California winters with no issues).
Ok, but what about when it isn't holiday time? What else could you possibly use these plugs for?
One of the other great uses I've found for a smart plug is for charging up my micromobility devices. I'm specifically talking about e-bikes and scooters, but anything that has a rechargeable battery where you're worried about degradation could benefit.
Most experts agree that to maximize the lifespan of your e-bike battery, you should keep it within that sweet spot between 20-80 percent full. You should try to avoid running the battery all the way down to zero when you can. And it's never a great idea to leave the battery fully charged at 100 percent when you don't need it.
When I have my e-bike battery charger plugged into my Kasa smart plug, I'm able to calculate the best charging duration for battery health. I know that the 500 milliamp hour battery can fully charge in about four hours. So to fit safely into that 20-80 percent battery zone, I just set a timer in the Kasa app for about 3 hours. When the timer goes off, the battery stops charging and I don't have to worry about leaving it charging overnight or rushing to the garage to unplug it when it hits its desired fill level.
It's a fantastic use of a smart plug if I don't say so myself. Of course you should always be using high-quality UL-certified batteries on these devices, but if you don't, it's a hell of a lot safer to use a plug that can automatically stop charging rather than run all night for fear of overheating.
And these are just the smart plug uses that I've come to rely on. I'm sure you could come up with a host of other fun uses for yourself. Turn on the electric tea kettle or coffee machine for you at a specific time in the morning? Connect a fan or space heater to make sure you get that perfect temperature while you sleep without worrying about it running all night?
The list goes on and on. As I wish you all a happy new year, I'll take a moment to tip my hat to the humble smart plug as its been one of my favorite devices of the past year.
Thanks for reading, I’ll see you next week!
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