Plenty of people around Loughton and Chigwell are asking the same thing right now:
It is a fair question. Some smart kit is genuinely useful. Some is just extra plastic in a drawer.
In this article I will run through, from an electrician’s point of view:
A smart plug is basically a remote controlled switch that sits between the wall socket and your appliance.
Energy advice campaigns explain that smart plugs can:
They use a tiny bit of power themselves but typically around one watt or so. Used properly they can still save energy by cutting much larger standby loads from the devices they control.
So they are not magic. They are just a neat way to get control over things that would otherwise sit on standby all day.
The key is what you plug into them.
Energy Saving Trust and other sources often quote that devices left on standby can account for around 5 to 10 percent of a typical home’s electricity use. That can add roughly £50 to £80 a year to the bill.
Recent UK articles and council advice say:
Smart plugs help when:
Used like that, smart plugs are basically a convenient way to do what all the sensible energy guides already tell you to do: turn things off when you are not using them.
Where people get disappointed is when they expect a £15 plug to cancel out a whole house full of electric heating. That is not how the maths works.
Here are the use cases where I see smart plugs genuinely helping in real houses and flats.
TV, soundbar, console, set top box, streaming box. The classic stack.
A smart plug or a short extension on a smart plug can:
Standby on this sort of equipment is exactly what energy advisers mean when they talk about vampire devices.
Monitors, printers, speakers and chargers are often left powered even when the laptop is shut.
A smart plug on a small office extension lead means:
Electric towel rails are one of the appliances often picked out in articles about hidden energy drains, sometimes costing tens of pounds per year if left on constantly.
A properly rated smart plug can:
Important point though. Anything that heats uses a lot of power. You must make sure the smart plug is properly rated and you are not overloading sockets or extension leads. I will come back to that in the safety bit.
Smart plugs are also handy for:
They are not a must have, but they do make day to day control easier if you use them properly.
There are some things I would not put on a bog standard smart plug.
Electrical safety bodies warn that high powered or constantly running appliances should be plugged directly into a wall socket, not a cheap extension or adaptor.
If a smart plug is going to control a heavy load, it needs to be:
If in doubt, ask an electrician before you start adding extra adaptors to already busy sockets.
From my side of the toolbox, the safety questions matter more than the app screenshots.
Consumer watchdogs have repeatedly found so called energy saving plugs that claim to cut bills by 30 percent just by being plugged in. Testing showed that many of these devices do not save energy at all and often fail basic electrical safety checks, with poor soldering and components that overheat.
If a product says it will magically slash your bills simply by plugging it in and doing nothing else, it is almost certainly not legitimate. Smart plugs that just switch things on and off are fine. Mystery boxes that claim to reshape your voltage and cure all your bill problems are not.
Electrical Safety First repeatedly warn that:
If you are using a smart plug on an extension, keep it for low to medium power items like AV kit and chargers, not kettles and heaters. If you are not sure about load, there are socket overload calculators on safety sites and your electrician can advise.
If you are thinking of smart plugs for garden lighting or outdoor equipment, make sure:
Outdoor sockets and smart controls are something we often build into garden lighting projects so that the whole setup stays safe and tidy.
If you are reading this because you want to get control over a few hungry circuits in your home, you are probably already doing some of the right things.
The way we normally talk this through on site is:
That sort of work sits nicely alongside our:
If you are also thinking about your wiring generally, an EICR test is often worth doing at the same time.
This article also ties in well with our earlier blogs on energy saving electrical upgrades and smart home electricians, which go deeper into LEDs, heating controls and whole home efficiency.
Lots of people can set up a basic smart plug on a lamp without any help. Where it is worth bringing us in is when:
We can:
Yes, a little. Guidance from smart device suppliers suggests they typically use around 1 watt on standby.
The point is that if they are switching off devices that would otherwise waste tens of watts on standby all day, you still come out ahead.
It depends what you use them for. Energy advice sources say standby can account for roughly £50 to £80 of a typical home’s annual electricity bill.
If you use smart plugs to genuinely switch off big standby loads every night and when you are out, you can chip away at that. If you use them only on a low power lamp, the savings will be tiny.
They can be if they are properly rated and used as the manufacturer intends, but generic advice is to plug high power or always on appliances straight into a wall socket. Electrical Safety First stress not overloading sockets or extensions with heavy loads.
If you want a controllable circuit for a heater, it is usually better to get an electrician to install a suitable socket or spur and, if needed, a hard wired timer.
Check for:
Avoid anonymous "energy saver" plugs that promise huge bill cuts by "optimising voltage". Testing has found many such devices are unsafe and ineffective.
Yes, but they fill a different gap. Smart meters show you how much you are using in total. Smart heating controls look after heating and hot water. Smart plugs help with everything plugged into sockets, mainly by taming standby and giving you schedules for non critical loads.
Used together, they can all help you understand and cut your energy use without making life harder.
If you are in Loughton, Chigwell or nearby and want to use smart plugs as part of a proper plan to cut wasted energy, we are happy to talk it through.
We can help you pick the right kit, keep everything safe and tie it into a wider home automation or energy saving project so it actually moves the needle on your bills.
Contact us today to receive your free quotation with no strings attached.
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