These plugs may be smart, but are they clever?
You’ll find over 300 products in Galaxus’s «smart plugs» category. While some are «only» capable of switching on a lamp they’re connected to, others are valuable servants for any smart home. Here’s what you need to know about them in a nutshell.
Alright, we’ll admit it. When we criticised «Kassensturz’s» smart plug review in a recent article for falling short, we were taking the easy way out. Criticisms levelled at «Kassensturz» in the piece included a poorly developed test field and questionable review criteria.
Some users who commented on our article, however, thought this was a cheap shot. They said it was pretty undignified to simply complain about the «Kassensturz» review without proving that we could do any better. And besides:
Unfortunately, you can’t compare important criteria properly in your product comparisons because your data quality is too poor for «smart» comparisons. What a pity.
On behalf of the team, I’ll hold my hands up and accept the criticism of our data quality. There have been some real fails there. However, we do have some colleagues working on correcting any data that our automated system hasn’t quite managed to get right. While we’re on that topic, I’d like to thank all the Community members who’ve taken the time to patch up incorrect or missing product data so far.
I’ll now be describing some situations where you can use smart plugs, referencing relevant products from our range as I go along. If you have a specific idea of what you’re after or if you’re looking for a solution to a particular problem, you might find my overview of frequently asked questions and their answers helpful:
I haven’t based this article on comparative tests done in a lab. Instead, it’s rooted in my own experiences with various smart plugs and smart home systems. The Digitec Galaxus editorial team will continue to test individual products and write articles about their pros, cons and potential uses.
Lights on, lights off
The «dumbest» smart plugs out there can do little more than switch a coffee machine, radio or lamp on or off. Granted, you could just flip the switch on a lamp yourself. But hey, sometimes that’s inconvenient. Or you’re just feeling lazy. Wireless, remote-controlled adapter plugs give you the power to zap through your home’s light settings right from your sofa.
Can’t be bothered with an extra remote control? Always struggling to find the remotes you do have? If so, you might be interested in smart plugs you can control with a gadget you’re guaranteed to have on you: your smartphone. These plugs are listed in your Wi-Fi network and can communicate with your phone.
Unlike the «dumb» remote-control plugs above, these plugs have earned the descriptor of «smart». Or to put it another way, they’re helpful when you use them with the manufacturer’s app. Almost all of them allow you to time when your devices turn on and off. To give you a concrete example of this in action, you could set all of the devices hooked up to a power strip to switch off at the end of the working day so that they’re not drawing power in standby mode. Except, of course, for the power the smart plug itself requires.
All of these plugs have a slightly different focus. As expected, the Philips Hue model, for instance, is focused on controlling lights. Others, such as the Eve, are developed around the need to measure power consumption.
Stay in control wherever you are
Smart plugs you’ve set up can be controlled whenever, wherever, using either the manufacturer’s app or your smart home system’s user interface. This comes in handy when you forget to switch off a light and only remember once you’ve got to the office. It’s also useful if you’re on holiday and want to fool potential burglars into thinking someone’s home. You just grab your phone and unexpectedly switch on a lamp hooked up to a smart plug.
Command sequences and scenes
The more information a smart plug itself collects, the more devices are smart or connected to smart plugs, the more sophisticated a command sequence can be. If you have a smart home system, for instance, you could define that a particular lamp only comes on when the room reaches a certain temperature or when someone in the room moves. «If this then that» or IFTTT, is the principle behind command sequences like this. To create one, you can use an IFTTT app or the open source solution Home Assistant.
In creating a so-called scene, you can control several devices via smart plugs. With a single tap, you could turn on your coffee machine, raise the blinds and put on your favourite radio station.
In the Apple Home app, for example, I’ve set up my Netatmo weather station, Gardena humidity sensor and Eve Aqua irrigation computer (which I reviewed here) to only water my shrubs and flowers when the ground’s dry and it’s not expected to rain.
Integrable plugs
A few years ago, manufacturers realised that customers lose interest in smart products if they’re not compatible with each other. As a result, Matter was launched in 2022 (website in German), making it possible for Amazon devices to communicate with Apple devices and for smart plugs from different manufacturers to work together. If you want to find out more about Matter, my colleague Jan has written an article about it:
When browsing our shop, you can select all smart plugs that support Matter under «Smart Home Protocol». Generally, products displayed under this filter will be suitable for the smart home system you use.
However, there are also smart plugs that don’t work with Matter. Instead, these are designed to work in one or more smart home systems. It’s pretty common, for example, to use smart plugs that can be controlled with Alexa, Amazon’s voice assistant. If you use Google Home, you’ll be quick to find what you’re looking for too. There aren’t as many compatible products for Apple fans – and even fewer for Samsung Smart Things users.
So if you can’t choose a particular system – or would rather not do so – you should definitely make sure you buy smart plugs that are compatible with Matter. It’s the standard of the future.
Source: Martin Jungfer
Keeping an eye on power usage and temperature
Some smart plugs have interesting extra features that enable clever automation. They can detect movement in a room, measure temperature or gauge a device’s power consumption. In my case, a myStrom smart plug helped me identify a dehumidifier in my basement as a real power guzzler. (All that’s left to do now is get a more efficient replacement.) If you want to have a better understanding of which devices are driving up your electricity bill, these smart plugs will help.
If you want a lamp to turn on automatically when you enter a room, the WiZ smart plug is the right choice for you. Alternatively, you could plug in a motion sensor compatible with a smart home system, such as these models from MyStrom or Shelly.
It’s the same story when it comes to temperature. You can either integrate an additional device or choose a smart plug with a built-in thermometer. This one here might be an option for you – it’s currently the only one we have available.
I’ve made a conscious choice to keep this article as a general overview of smart plugs. I’m aware that there are experts in our Community who’ve used Zigbee or Shelly to build next-level smart home systems. We’ve published articles on this in the magazine before, and we’ll do so again in the future.
Martin Jungfer
Head of Content
Martin.Jungfer@digitecgalaxus.chJournalist since 1997. Stopovers in Franconia (or the Franken region), Lake Constance, Obwalden, Nidwalden and Zurich. Father since 2014. Expert in editorial organisation and motivation. Focus on sustainability, home office tools, beautiful things for the home, creative toys and sports equipment.
