You might have heard a lot about the smart plug, that it is a versatile device and that you can transform your home by using a smart plug. But have you really thought about all the uses of a smart plug? If not then here is a list of more than 30 ways to use a smart plug and if you have thought about all the creative uses of a smart plug, then here is your chance to check the below list and update your existing one.
So without any further ado, let’s get counting shall we?
General Uses of a Smart Plug in Home
Device Charging: Overcharging is a real thing that can cause serious damage to your devices like a laptop or a smartphone. When used in combination with the smart plug, you can set a power-off time based on how long a device takes to get a full charge. This is ideal for overnight charging so that you can put your smart plug to use and sleep carefree.
Radios: A warm cup of tea and the timeless Bollywood melodies playing on a radio, this is what quite a few of the Indian mornings feel like. Although, sometimes we fail to keep track of time and that results in an unnecessary hustle. Further follows a day where you just can’t stop running because you started late. Using a smart plug to turn on the radio at the time of your favorite show and turning it off at the right time will ensure you never indulge too much.
Wi-Fi Router: The Internet has become the need of the hour and most homes have a Wi-Fi connection for high-speed data. But there are problems with a Wi-Fi router that can cause it to slow down or even crash due to overuse. If you have a Bluetooth smart plug then you can easily reboot your Wi-Fi router using your smart plug.
Air Purifier: The pandemic taught us about the amount of air pollution that we create as a developing country. Since the lockdown, many Indians have started using air purifiers for home. Since one of the prime uses of a smart plug is to automate your home appliances, you can use the smart plug for your air purifier as well. Instead of turning it on and letting it run all day or for the most part of the day, you can schedule your air purifier to turn on every couple of hours and shut down after 40-45 minutes.
Hidden Outlets: Remember stretching your arm out to reach that socket hidden behind the wardrobe? Almost all of our homes have one outlet which is tough to reach. With a smart plug, you just have to reach it once and then control it with your smartphone till you decide to rearrange your furniture.
Kitchen
Slow Cooker: Slow cooker is a magical device in itself as it lets you load the ingredients, turn it on and go out and carry on with your day and return back to a delicious slow-cooked meal. Although fro complicated recipes you need to be present more and pay more attention. This is where you can introduce your slow cooker to a smart plug. You can use the smart plug to schedule power on and off and thereby pay all the attention that a recipe needs while setting the schedule.
Kettle and Coffee Maker: For most people hustling out there throughout their day, coffee is the fuel. This makes coffee make all the more useful. One of the best uses of a smart plug is to connect your coffee maker with it and have a warm cup of coffee waiting as you are on your way back home.
Waffle Maker: Who loves freshly cooked crisp waffles dripping with chocolate syrup? Obviously, everybody does but the real question is, who is willing to get up on a Sunday morning and wait as the waffle iron gets heated? No one and if you are smart enough, then no one needs to either. Just use a smart plug to turn on the waffle iron even when you are in the bed. Get the batter out of the fridge when the iron is ready and start making yummy waffles without waiting.
Microwave: A microwave is one of those devices that bite your ear off when done cooking. The constant beeping is really annoying and at the same time uses too much energy as well. With the use of a smart plug, you can switch off the microwave as soon as it is done from your smartphone.
Pet Feeder: Pet feeder is another home appliance that is getting popular among pet owners. These are automatic, programmable devices that dispense food and medication at the scheduled time. But the problem is that they stay on and consume power. A smarter way to feed your pet in your absence would be to use a smart plug to monitor and control the pet feeder.
Tumble Dryer: Tumble dryers are one of those appliances that more often than not, you will find yourself using in a hurry. But the problem is that you cannot trust it to get the job done safely in your absence. This is where the smart plug comes in handy again with its remote accessibility, you can turn off the tumble dryer automatically using scheduling.
Hands-Free: With the help of smart plugs and home assistants you can be the true master of your kitchen. Once paired with the virtual assistant, you can control all your devices vocally. It is one of the most incredible uses of a smart plug that will allow you to get the kettle boiling, the oven preheating and the induction turned on while you are just sitting on a couch watching your favorite web series.
Living Room
Entertainment System: You might think that turning off the TV from the remote is harmless but that is a myth. Even when turned off from the remote, the entertainment system still consumes power. One of the uses of a smart plug is to give you smart control of the power consumed as they turn off the power supply to the entertainment system completely. FYI you just need to turn them off from your smartphone, so, zero struggle and full efficiency.
Air Conditioner: The living room is the comfiest place to lounge and relax at home. Too bad the air conditioning takes so much time to catch up with the whole mood of relaxing, right? Wrong! With a smart wi-fi plug, you can switch on the air conditioning from anywhere. While most of the uses of the smart plug listed above are creative or different, this one is an obvious reason why you should definitely buy a smart plug.
Lamps & Lights: There is so much that you do in your living room from meeting friends and chatting to enjoying good times with family. The lighting is what really sets the mood for each of these occasions. A smart plug-in combination with smart lighting for your living room can really turn your happy moments into vivid memories. While it is one of the best uses of a smart plug it is also a step ahead in your journey towards home automation.
Fish Tank Lights: Fish tank lights enhance the beauty of your aquarium but keeping these lights on is bad for your fishes. Lights impact the sleep cycles and eating habits of the fishes and thus another way to use a smart plug is to schedule your fish tank lights to imitate the day and night environment.
Diwali Decorations: Diwali is a festival of lights and it is celebrated in grand fashion in all corners of India. There is one thing that you could make better about those celebrations and it involves the use of a smart plug. While the lights look beautiful at night, it sure is a big task to get up early at sunrise and switch them off. It is far easy and more efficient to just schedule them to turn off at a specified time.
Smart Plug in the Bedroom
Air Conditioning: We have already discussed turning the AC on in the living room as one of the uses of a smart plug yet in the bedroom you can experience control of your AC in a completely different way in your bedroom. In the living room, you need your air conditioning to stay on for as long as you are there. That is not true for your bedroom. In fact, while sleeping at night you need a perfect temperature and many ACs either fail to maintain it properly or the constant power off and on breaks your sleep. With a smart plug, you can schedule power on and off periods for your AC throughout the night.
Electric blankets: Bed warmers and self-warming blankets are a preferred choice in the colder parts of the country. The temperature is so low that a warm bed seems like a hug in a time of existential crisis. Again, you can easily use a smart plug to turn on your bed warmer or electric blanket. This implies that by using a smart plug, t=you never have to go to sleep in a cold bed ever again.
Curling Irons: Curling irons and hair straighteners are a few of the devices that take their own sweet time to get ready for action. Besides, you end u doubting whether you turned them off or not, almost always. It would be smart on your part to add this to your list of uses of a smart plug and remember to always use your straighteners or curlers with a smart plug. This way you can turn them on as per your routine while finishing other chores thereby saving time. Also, you will be in control of the power supply in case you find out that you left your curling iron switched on at home while on the way to the office.
Bedroom Lights: It is common for most people to keep snoozing their alarm and giving up on the thought of leaving the bed repeatedly in the morning. If you are one of those people and want to change that habit, here is a splendid idea for you. You could use a smart plug to schedule lights on at the time of your alarm. This way you will have one more thing to turn off instead of the annoying alarm tone. That extra push might help you go ahead with the thought of waking up.
Smart Plug in Kids’ Bedroom
TV and Video Games: Kids love to spend time on screens and they can go hours without blinking an eye whether it be cartoons on TV or video games. Obviously, this is not good for their mental development and for their eyesight as well. Therefore, using a smart plug to schedule power off for TV in the kids’ bedroom is a great way to automatically control the screen time they get.
Night Light: More often than not, kids are afraid of the dark. A small night lamp or night light can make them feel comfortable and help them sleep better. Use a smart plug to schedule power on and power off for a night light in your kids’ bedroom.
Smart Plug in a Garden
Irrigation: Everyone loves a lush garden with a tasteful selection of flora and lush grass to sit and chill on. However, it takes a lot of effort to nurture and nourish a garden and maintain it at the peak of its beauty and health. The most important part of maintaining a garden is timely watering and in most parts of India, a garden needs watering twice a day. With the use of a smart plug and an irrigation kit, you can easily water your garden twice a day without fail.
Pool Pumps: Pool pumps are used to clear the pool water and separate the waste and debris from it. However, running the pool pumps forever is not the way to go about it. Instead, the smart way is to use a smart plug to schedule the pool pump for a short period of time every morning. This way you need not worry about turning the pool pump on and enjoy a clean garden pool daily.
Garden Lighting: Lighting is a great way to transform your garden at night. Properly lit gardens are amazing places to just hang out with friends & family and chill. Even when you are not sitting in the garden at night, you can still decorate it with your favorite lights. Using a smart plug will help you to schedule the lights in your garden so it looks beautiful but does not turn into a source of wasted electricity.
Smart Plug in Garage and Workshop
Tool Charging: Gone are the days when power tools came with long cords and would run only on an electric supply. Today there are many chargeable power tools available in the market that are cordless for the convenience of use. It is a smart choice to use a smart plug to remotely control the charging of your tools n the garage.
Electric Heaters: During the winters or in places with low temperatures, workshops and garages could be too cold for work. Another one of the uses of a smart plug can be to turn on a room heater in your garage and let the room heat up to a cozy temperature.
Smart Plugs Add Value to Offices Too
Air Conditioning: Like homes, you can use a smart plug to turn on the air conditioning before reaching the office, although this only works for those who have their own cabin.
Computers: It is not possible to build an office without having desktops and laptops. Even non-IT firms require computers to plan, schedule, and coordinate their daily tasks. Computers, when left on standby, consume a substantial amount of power and by using an extension connected to a smart plug you can schedule power on or control the power supply to the computers in your office.
Other Miscellaneous & Fun Applications of a Smart Plug
Fend Off Burglars: When on a vacation, you often find your mind wandering towards your home stressing whether everything is alright or not. Home security is an obvious concern and most people rely on neighbors to keep an eye on. But the real question is, what can you do if you found out that your home is being robbed? With remote accessibility in the smart plugs, you can switch your devices on or off from anywhere. This feature really comes in handy at times when bad news like an ongoing robbery hits you. Seeing the lights or other appliances being turned on will definitely scare the burglars and lead to them fleeing for safety.
Haunted House Prank: One of the super-cool uses of a smart plug is to play the ‘haunted house’ prank on your friends. With the use of multiple smart lugs connected to various devices like TV, radio, and lamps you can create the perfect sequence that will make your friends’ hair stand on their ends. Imagine, the lights go off as soon as they enter your house and then the radio turns on in a distant room followed by a pin drop silence and then the TV switches on at full volume and then after a brief moment of silence the TV, Radio and the mixer starts running along with the lamps switching on and off.
If there are still any doubts about smart plugs which are haunting you, check out our guide to smart plugs.
If put to use properly, a smart plug is one of the most amazing smart devices in the budget that you will enjoy having in your home. How many more uses can you think of? Let us know in the comments.
Smart Bulb
Smart Downlight
Smart Camera
Smart Security
Smart Doorbell
Smart Door Lock
Smart AC Remote
Smart TV Remote
Smart Energy Monitor
Smart Striplight
Smart Plug
