Are Smart Plugs Worth it ?

brewerdave

Phlik said:

Yes they can be, whether they are or not will be down to your own use case.
We have three that we'd bought several years ago for switching Christmas lights on and off as the sockets were very awkward to reach. They've now been repurposed, one switches the multi socket for the TV, av amplifier, Amazon fire TV, Chromecast, network switch and Xbox, that lot together on standby was around 15 Watts. Another is used for the charger for the stair lift, we have solar panels so it makes sense to prevent the stair lift charging over night. The third is used in winter with a 500 Watt oil filled radiator, on brighter winter days we switch it on if solar generation is high enough.

Same here - using one for the Sky box shutting off ~ midnight and on at 8am and a second one for the other TV bits and bobs which shuts off ~ 10:30pm and back on early am for the wife to do her zumba routines to Youtube !! 

avoidtheupsidedownbottles

JohnPo said:

I use one of my dishwasher as their is no timer on it.  I am Octopus Go so have have 7.5p KwHr between 00.30 and 04.30.  I simply press the start button, then use the TAPO App. to switch it off and then set a timer on the App. so it powers up shortly after 00:30.

Has worked reliably doing that for months, much better on trying to stay up late to switch the dishwasher on manually before I go to bed, which highly unreliable.

I guess that would only work with older machines.  New ones tend to need a button-press once the power supply has been switched on.

techno12

Definitely worth it. I've been using 3 "Intellipanel" 8-gang extension leads for many years now. When the master device (PC or TV) goes into standby, after a few seconds the rest of the sockets turn completely off. Resume from standby and they turn back on.

No messing with apps or manual switches.

They already paid for themselves before the recent energy hikes, so I'm glad I have them.

gill5blue

Definitely worth it. I use 6 around the house. My tv was on standby for 5 years-it does not have an off button. I was told items use little electricity on standby-even though mine a newish I would disagree. I have saved loads using these plugs. I started putting them in march this year, see photo.