Smart Plug Life Hacks to Make Your Home More Efficient and Just Plain More Fun

Smart Plugs. Maybe you've heard of them but you're not totally sure what they are or why you'd want one. We got you! 

A smartplug is any type of wifi-enabled, plug-in electrical socket that allows you to control the devices attached to it from your phone or through an automated set of rules.

What we love most about them? A smart plug connected to OhmConnect's free service actually rewards you for using it. It's true! OhmConnect is a free service that rewards our customers for saving energy when there are times of too much stress on the grid. With a smart plug connected, you save that energy and earn rewards automatically! It's one of California's best kept secrets.

But in addition to rewarding you, there are a TON of other fun ways to use a smart plug.

Smart Plug Life Hacks

A few weeks ago we put out a call to OhmConnect community members to send in their favorite ways to use a smart plug and boy, did they ever deliver! We got hundreds of submissions. Here are our 10 favorites: 

• “I put the window AC unit in the babies’ room on a smart plug. Now I can turn it off with my phone without waking them up and I can earn Watts automatically during OhmHours and AutoOhms.” - Jason P from Hercules, CA

• “I use a smart plug to schedule off times of my outdoor hot tub. Heating it on off-peak hours and not just leaving the thermostat to decide when to turn on, I was able to save 30% of the cost of heating up the water.” - Alvaro F from San Mateo, CA 

• “I plug my garage door opener into the Smart Plug when I go on vacation. I turn it off and no one can open the garage door with a scanner because it has no power. When I come home I turn it on from my phone and my garage door opener works again.” - Steve S from Cupertino, CA

• “In the winter, I keep my bedroom heater plugged into my smart plug and set a schedule for it to turn on for 30 minutes before I wake up. This way, the room is toasty when I wake up and I don't need to turn on the thermostat for the whole house. And I don't have to worry about forgetting to turn it off before I leave for work!” -Renee B from San Francisco, CA 

• "A smart plug is the new Clapper. No more clapping on and off my nightstand lights. My new lights hang from the ceiling. I didn’t like the look of the cords running down the wall so routed them to the corners. Of course, I was no longer able to reach the switch. Problem solved with a smart plug on each light for voice and/or smart phone control. CLAP ON! CLAP OFF!! CLAP ON CLAP OFF, THE CLAPPER!" - Terence C from San Diego, CA

• “We use it as our nightly bedtime reminder! It’s hooked up with a power strip that has the TV & light source for the living room. Come bedtime, it’s lights out - literally.” -Sarina P, Santa Rosa, CA

• "My son has a free standing fan that he turns on in the morning, but often forgets to turn off when he goes to school. I have a smart plug hooked up to Alexa so that as part of my "I'm leaving the house" routine, it shuts off the plug just in case he left it on, without my having to go upstairs to check to see if he left it on."- Matt C from Irvine, CA 

• "We put our smart plug on the kid's TV and tell them the power went out." - Hoyt L from Templeton, CA

• "My wife and I are big Harry Potter fans. Using our Alexa, I specified for the lights controlled by our smart plugs to be turned on by saying “Lumos!” or “Lumos Maxima!”, and turned off by saying “Nox”. Harry Potter fans will recognize these as spells for producing light from a wand and extinguishing the light, respectively. My wife’s smile beamed brighter than our lamps the first time I uttered the incantation!" - Kevin D from San Marcos, CA

• "I have my smart plug attached to all the connections at my work from home desk. At 6pm, everything shuts off and it serves as a reminder for me to stop working and start having some quality time with my family. It has been extremely useful is reminding me to disconnect from work - which can be hard to do these days." - Ravneet S from Fresno, CA 

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Don't have a smart plug yet? Pick one up today in the OhmConnect store.