Which Smart Plug Should You Buy?

Author: Craig Lloyd / Source: howtogeek.com

Pretty much every company that dabbles in smarthome technology sells their own smart plug. With so many choices, it can be hard to choose the best one to use with your lamps and other appliances.

Luckily, smart plugs are pretty simple devices—you plug stuff into them and control them remotely from your smartphone (or using a voice assistant).

So, there are really only a few things you need to keep in mind when shopping around for one.

Energy Usage Monitoring

Some smart plugs keep track of how much power your appliances use, and even automatically calculate how much that power costs you if you enter your electric company’s rates.

This kind of feature can be great if you’re plugging in something like a space heater or other appliance that uses up a lot of electricity—sometimes you don’t really know just how much these devices are costing you over the long run until you take a closer look.

However, if you’re just plugging in a lamp or even a small fan, energy usage monitoring isn’t all that important. In any case, you won’t really be paying more for the privilege of energy usage monitoring, but it will narrow down your choices.

Size Matters

Smart plugs come in all different shapes and sizes, but deciding how big or small you want your smart plug comes down to one thing, which is whether or not it will block the second outlet receptacle.

A lot of newer smart plugs are designed to be a bit smaller than older ones, making room for that other receptacle on an outlet. Of course, there are still ways around it if you end up getting a larger smart plug that takes over the whole outlet, but if you’re shopping around for a new smart plug, consider its size if you plan on plugging anything else into that same outlet.