Smart plugs make it possible to control and automate dumb devices using a smart home system, and those with energy monitoring capabilities give you even more triggers to play with. These plugs go beyond simple on-off functionality, letting you automate based on usage to get even more done.
1
Make smarter decisions based on cost
Credit: IKEA
By far the most obvious reason to use an energy monitoring plug is to see exactly what a device costs you to run. Think of this as a fact-finding mission, where you cross-reference energy consumption with the costings provided by your energy company to come up with a per-hour or per-cycle costing.
Use your plug to work out how much it costs you to run a heater for an hour, wash a load of laundry, or compare your dishwasher’s regular and eco cycles. It’s not exactly fun, but understanding an appliance’s true usage can help you better understand your power bill and where to make cuts.
2
Get notifications from washing machines and dishwashers
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Energy monitoring smart plugs let you trigger actions based on energy consumption. You can use this functionality to monitor when a device has completed a cycle, like a dishwasher, washing machine, or clothes dryer. You can turn this into a notification that it’s time to hang up the laundry or put another load on.
To do this, you’re going to need to build an automation that sends you a notification when the power consumption dips below a certain wattage for a set period of time. You’ll also want to create another set of automations that turn the main automation on and off.
A powerful smart home platform like Home Assistant gives you lots of options for accomplishing this.
3
Shut off devices when they’re not in use
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Using the same logic, you can create an automation that doesn’t send you a notification to take your clothes out of the washer but rather turns off the connected smart plug instead. You can accomplish this by using a power consumption trigger to change the state of the plug to off when the wattage dips below a certain amount for a minute or two. For simplicity’s sake, you can manually trigger the smart plug (using an app, your voice, or the button on the smart plug itself) to start each cycle.
This is particularly handy for charging devices without leaving them on all the time. You could use it for a smartphone that lacks modern optimized charging or for power tool chargers and shavers so that the batteries aren’t perpetually in a state of trickle charging and depleting.
4
Automatically reboot your router, server or NAS
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Network equipment like routers and switches crash from time to time (if this crosses over to “a lot of the time,” it’s probably time to replace them). When this happens, power consumption typically holds steady at a relatively low number. You can use this to your advantage and build a simple automation that turns the connected smart plug off, waits around ten seconds, then turns it on again.
There are a few caveats to this one. First, you’ll need to monitor your router to see how much power it uses when it hasn’t crashed. This will give you a level that you know you’ll have to work around when coming up with a power consumption variable that indicates a problem. Second, you’ll need to be using a smart plug that doesn’t rely on your Wi-Fi network.
Zigbee, Z-Wave, and Matter over Thread all work great for this, alongside a Home Assistant server that should keep ticking over even when the internet lights go out. You could also use this to restart a NAS and other similar devices.
5
Monitor devices that become active
Most devices sip power in the background, even when they’re not doing anything. I’ve noticed that my MacBook Pro’s 140W charger uses around 0.7W of power when my laptop isn’t connected, but when I plug in my laptop, that usage skyrockets to well over 100W, depending on what I’m doing and what stage the battery is at in the charge cycle.
You can use this sudden spike in activity to monitor devices that spring to life and use this information to trigger other events. Exactly how you implement this will depend on what you’re trying to achieve.
Perhaps you have a dumb garage door opener and you’d like to detect activity in the garage, or maybe you have a sump pump in your basement that you’d like to monitor to find out when it’s active and have reassurance that it’s doing its job.
6
Detect fail states
Credit: Samsung
Some household appliances and devices are designed to be plugged in all the time, like refrigerators and freezers. These devices may only sip power, but their usage shouldn’t fall to zero. If your fridge is suddenly using no power at all, it’s a good sign that something is wrong. You may also have devices that shut off when they’re full or require some action on your part.
Add an energy-monitoring plug to any mission-critical device so that you can get an early warning if something isn’t working as it should be.
7
Start a chain of events
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Are you a creature of habit? Use your predictable schedule to min-max your routine using a subtle trigger that doesn’t require that you talk to a smart speaker or whip out your phone. Let’s say, for example, that you switch on your coffee machine or electric kettle every morning to start your day. With the right automation, you can have the coffee machine’s energy consumption do a load of other things like turn on the lights in your office or unlock your front door.
Or, when it’s time to relax at night, you could use the increased power draw of a console to set mood lighting, turn on the TV, and set the input accordingly. You can get really granular with these, like making sure that the coffee machine routine only fires between certain hours or on certain days of the week (so that weekends are excluded), or that your console routine lowers the living room blinds if you start playing on a bright day.
Smart plugs and outlets are arguably the best smart home upgrades you can make, but energy monitoring makes them even better. You only need a few of them around your house in the right devices to make all the difference!
Personally, I’ve gone for IKEA Inspelning ($13) plugs which work over Zigbee. Wondering where to start? Learn more about getting started with smart plugs.
