We’ve seen many smart appliance and electronic products striking to the market currently. You may see products like washing machine that’s equipped with Bluetooth, refrigerator with WiFi, or air conditioner with SRD function are displayed on the front rack of electronic store. Yes, these appliances products are mesmerizing to see. But, do you have to throw your old things away just to bring those things inside of your house? With Smart Plug, it’s surely not.
Instead of causing more and more electronic waste, buying new smart appliance products to replace the ordinary ones is not something cheap. It costs dollars for something that we actually already have. So based on this reason, a cheaper alternative is highly appreciated; Smart Plug. This is a simple tiny device that can turn your ordinary appliance and electronic products to be one level smarter.
However, one thing that should be noted, a smart plug doesn’t turn your ordinary air conditioner or refrigerator to be as clever as smart-air conditioner or smart-refrigerator. But, it lets your appliances products to have one of the smart features offered by these smart devices; automation.
What is Smart Plug?
Basically, smart plug is a power receptacle device that plugs into a standard electrical outlet. But, this is not an ordinary power receptacle as it’s equipped with wireless module. This module usually uses WiFi, Bluetooth, or SRD technology to connect to the internet network of your house. Therefore, you can control the plug by using smartphone application. This control can be in term of remotely turn the power on or off, or making power on/off schedule. It may seems simple. But, trust me that you’ll find it very beneficial.
Smart Plug Benefits
The main benefit that you can get is that smart plug helps you control electricity consumption. Sometimes we forgot to turn off some lamps, air conditioner, or other electrical device before leaving home, or we just leave them in standby mode. And, this could cause what we call energy vampire, the condition when energy drowned by your electronic devices even when they are in off position or in standby mode.
With this device, you don’t have to worry about this energy vampire anymore. You can turn these devices off remotely when you’re away from home. All you need is giving command from mobile apps to the smart plug to cut off the electrical current. Therefore, you can minimize the use of power and cut the fee on your electricity bill.
Furthermore, smart plug also gives benefit in term of safety. It works much like a surge protector. If there’s power surge occurs, this device will alert user through mobile applications. This function is very helpful especially when there are multiple devices connected to the plug, so that you can do early preventing action to protect those devices from electrical hazard.
More benefit comes from the ability of making schedule. Some applications that are compatible with smart plug can make a daily power schedule. So, you can set at what hour your lamp should be turned on and off, at what time air conditioner on your room should operate and should stop, and so fort and so one. All can be done automatically and remotely. So, wherever you are, you still have control over your home.
Safety Issue on Smart Plug
Safety is one big concern for smart plug manufacturers. That’s why most of the smart plug devices marketed into the market has been set to meet certain safety standard to minimize the electrical hazard risk. However, it is recommended to plug the device directly into the smart plug. And, it is not recommended to plug any power strip or additional extension into the smart plug to prevent fire hazard. Besides, the smart plug could automatically turned off when it detects potential fire hazard.
Smart Plug in Smart Home Automation System
At last, smart plug could be the pioneer of smart home system too. Some products are even able to be connected to popular home automation systems like Nest, Samsung SmartThings, and Apple HomeKit. It can share the data between these apps, so it can connect to the whole home automation network.
Especially for Nest, smart plug can be utilized as a part of one interesting feature of it. Nest detects when owner is heading or close to home via GPS signal on user’s smartphone, and prepare things to set up. It will turn the specific lamps, air conditioner, coffee maker or whatever device that has been set. So, when you arrive home, everything has been set.
In addition to those features, smart plug also allows you to have this modern feel inside your house. This is due to the availability of doing smart plug control through popular virtual assistance such as Alexa, Siri, or Google assistance. It will be a fancy thing to say “Ok Google, turn on the TV” instead of turning it on manually, right?
What Smart Plug Needs before Distributed in Indonesia
As a big country with huge number of population and consistence economical growth, Indonesia will be such a challenging market for smart plug. But, before distributing this product, there are some requirements that need to be fulfilled. This product has wireless function, means that it has to comply with local wireless regulation. Regardless what kind of wireless technology it uses, whether it is Bluetooth, WiFi, GSM, or others, it needs to be tested first. So, that we could minimize the risk carried by the device, and avoid interference toward other wireless device. Besides, smart plug also needs to comply with the safety requirements (SNI). By complying with those regulations, this device could be marketed well legally and safely.
