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Upgrading your smart home devices can help you transform how you interact with where you live. You can turn on your smart TV with voice commands through a smart speaker or set up automations to have lights go on at certain times of the day to deter thieves from thinking you aren't home. Smart home gadgets are supposed to make your life easier and make your home more efficient.
Essentially, smart home devices are also making your home better. A way to do that is to ensure your home is using its energy as efficiently as possible. This is where energy-monitoring smart plugs can come into play. These can track the usage of energy for the outlets that they're plugged into, letting you know how much energy is being consumed at certain times. It can set you up to better understand your home. I've been using energy-monitoring plugs and have been impressed by how effective they are.
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Smart plugs can monitor your home's energy usage They can tell you what's happening, even when the plug isn't being usedI have a two-pack of Kasa Smart Wi-Fi Plugs that I have been using for a while. I got into a routine of automations that worked for a while in my home, such as using the plug to boil water in my electric tea kettle each day. It was on a schedule, and when the clock struck 8 AM, the kettle would turn on, and I'd have hot water awaiting me.
I would forget too often to fill up the water the night before and push the plunger down, which meant the plug would tick on and nothing would happen. I realized that was probably not helping my energy bill much, so I canceled the automation.
The way I was able to measure that is through the Kasa app. For each Kasa device, Kasa has different settings for it within the app. As I have an outdoor dimmer plug as well as the smart plugs, that is also listed.
The outdoor dimmer plug does not have energy monitoring features, so that isn't listed when you click onto the device in the app.
For the Smart Wi-Fi Plugs, they offer energy monitoring for energy and power usage. These low-tech gadgets can tell you over a day, month, or year how much your smart plug is using. When the device is off, it's not using much energy at all. But if it's plugged into something that is constantly turned on, it does an accurate job of reading how much energy and power the plug is using.
I like to keep an eye on energy usage It helps keep my mind on savings
Credit: Chris Hachey / MakeUseOf
I have two smart bulbs in different lamps in my bedroom. We rarely use our overhead light, as it's part of a ceiling fan and a built-in LED panel, so it can't really be changed. The dimmer switch we have on the wall doesn't affect it much, so you need to use a remote to control it. That's why we've opted for having three lamps.
Unfortunately, one of my smart bulbs broke, leaving me with only two for the bedroom. I turned one of the lamps into a smart device by plugging it into a Kasa smart plug. This allowed me to set up automations as well as turn it on from the app. By using it as a part of the smart room setup, this also lets me track its energy usage.
While I only get energy monitoring from the smart plug and not the other smart bulbs, I can get a general sense of how the room does in terms of its power consumption. The light bulbs are all the same wattage, and they generally are on for the same amount of time. While this isn't a perfect estimation of how much energy use each does, it's close enough that I can guess.
This has led me to adjust my schedules for the lights, as they don't need to be on at certain times. That saves me money on my energy bill in the long term, even if it's not that much money. This alone makes the smart plug extremely useful.
Adding smart plugs all over can help I'm interested in continuing this trend
Credit: Chris Hachey / MakeUseOf
I have a ton of appliances and lots of lights all over my home that could use monitoring. I've rotated the smart plugs around a bit to get better readings to help save on energy costs. I will continue to do this in the future until I can get smart plugs for more areas.
I don't want smart plugs for every device, as some devices shouldn't be plugged into smart plugs. But I am interested in learning more about my home the more I do this. I will say that I found a decent amount of energy used from my laptop battery being plugged into a smart plug. I didn't do this for long, but the amount of energy used was higher than a light bulb or tea kettle.
It's important to note that not every smart plug monitors energy. In fact, most don't offer this feature. You need to specifically find ones that offer it.
Smart plugs can monitor energy use for youEnergy use is an important topic of discussion and a smart plug can help you monitor it for your home. Saving on your electric bill is possible if you use a smart plug long enough to change your usage. Options like the Kasa Wi-Fi Smart Plug can provide you with detailed reports on your power and energy consumption.