Smart plugs are a great addition to any tech-lover’s home, and the ones we tried have just been reduced in Amazon’s Prime Day sale – but is it worth snapping them up?
This April many households across the UK will face an increase in energy, TV, and mobile bills as some services are set to hike their prices to fit in line with inflation. As billpayers become more conscious of the appliances they run at home. Amazon’s offering a deal on a useful gadget that’ll help keep track of spending.
As part of its big spring sale – officially known as Amazon Spring Deal Days – the retailers selling the Tapo Smart Plugs for a fraction of the usual price. Now £24.69 for a pack of four, a 38% saving. The plug-in devices are easy to find elsewhere, Argos sells the Philips Huge smart plug for £29, and it has similar smart features.
These electrical accessories can automate various tasks, such as turning on lights when you enter a room, setting a timer for your kettle, or even controlling your home appliances remotely. If you’re wondering whether they’re worth buying, I use them around my home, they tell me when I’m overspending.
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I originally reviewed the two-pack of Tapo smart plugs – now reduced to £15.19 in the sale – but the bigger four-pack offers a bigger saving and helps keep track of more items in the home. Having two at home wasn’t enough.
At first glance, these plug-in gadgets may seem deceptively simple, which was my initial thought when I unboxed them. However, they offer a range of features that can transform your home into a smart hub, as well as track energy consumption. Users can plug household appliances – like air fryers, fans, and microwaves into the wall with the smart plug, which can then monitor how much energy the appliance guzzles up.
Tapo told me our dehumidifier costs 3p a night to run
The app displays the runtime and the amount of kWh energy your connected appliance consumes, but in my experience, our smart meter provides more accurate readings. By clicking the ‘show more’ option on the Tapo app, you can access the energy figures for each plug. I discovered that running our dehumidifier overnight costs us 3p.
To obtain these figures, input your average price per kWh under the ‘bill of this month’ tab, and it will calculate the cost based on the kWh energy consumption of the device. One redeeming aspect is its ‘current power’ setting. Once activated, the app will display the varying wattages for each setting of a device.
Our bedroom dehumidifier’s power ranged from 1w to 45w between standby mode and the highest setting. I also monitored our living room TV and the bedroom dehumidifier/fan, primarily because I knew these would be the most frequently used over the next few days. The Away Mode and Remote Control features made the Tapo plugs worthwhile for me.
The next benefit is smart features, as you can control the appliances hooked up to the Tapo Smart Plug via the app – with a simple switch on. I can turn off my TV from standby mode when I’m not at home, and I can rest easy knowing our fan isn’t running up a huge bill, thanks to Tapo’s tracking. The best feature isn’t plugged into the socket but rather resides in the Tapo app. The device on which you install the app becomes the control centre of your home, even when you’re away.
The only downside I have found when using them, is the energy tracking can take a while to track through to the app. Looking at Amazon reviews, most shoppers are happy with their purchase but there are some negative comments from shoppers, with some reporting ‘issues connecting the plugs to their app’.