Tech Tip: Smart Outlets

Information is king in the world of energy saving. Understanding how much electricity is being used will give you an opportunity to eliminate waste. I picked up a pair of the Etekcity smart plugs for $27.00 on Amazon.

These smart outlets have the ability to turn power on/off from your smartphone. It also gives you a breakdown of Energy usage and allows for scheduled timers. Any plugged in appliance will have some power waste even when turned off. Gaming systems, TVs, cable boxes, and computers are notorious for wasting energy when not in use.

Here is the home screen for one of my outlets. My bedside lamp and cell phone charger have used only 0.82 kWh this month

Owning these outlets allows you to understand how much power things are using over time. Further, the schedule/timer feature provides the ability to turn off energy wasting appliances when they are dormant.

Here is the yearly chart of electricity usage from this same outlet. This tells me that I did more night time reading during the month of May.

Overall, I plan to continue purchasing more of these whenever they are on sale. Understanding and programming my electricity usage is a valuable commodity. I can save money by eliminating energy waste — I can also look cool by turning lights on and off from my cell phone!

Written By:

Luke Langhals