If you haven’t used either smart plugs or surge protectors before, you might wonder what their purpose is and how they work. Do you really need to buy them, and what do they do?
Here are 3 facts about smart plugs and surge protectors:
- Smart plugs will help you save on electricity.
- Surge protectors keep your devices safe.
- A surge protector and power strip are not the same.
Are you wondering whether you really need to buy a smart plug and surge protector? To learn more about what these devices are, how they function, and the benefits they have, keep reading!
1. Smart Plugs Will Help You Save on Electricity
A smart plug is a way to control the electronic devices in your house automatically. All you have to do is plug the smart plug into a power outlet and connect it to your wifi network.
Any smart plugs you purchase will come with an application to install on your phone. This application will let you control the device plugged in.
When you plug a device into the smart plug, you can now turn it on or off through the application instead of manually flicking the buttons on the device.
Because of what smart plugs are and what they do, they are a great way to save electricity besides spazzing up your house. You can schedule your plugs to turn the lights or fan on and off at specific hours, meaning your bills go down.
They also protect your home from fire hazards. If you forget to turn off heat-powered items like the iron when you leave the house, using a smart plug lets you do it without having to rush back home.
2. Surge Protectors Keep Your Devices Safe
A surge protector is a device meant to protect your electronic devices from surges in currents. These surges might occur due to lightning strikes, sudden power outages, or the power grid malfunctioning.
If voltage increases beyond a standard amount of safe volts, the surge protector will recognize this and send extra voltage to a stabilizing ground wire located within the surge protector.
A surge protector is beneficial because it prevents devices from being destroyed due to surges of electrical energy, along with reducing wear and tear by redirecting extra voltage.
Most importantly, the chances of an electrical fire breaking out in your house reduce a great deal with a surge protector.
3. A Surge Protector and Power Strip Are Not the Same
A power strip and a surge protector are not the same. Although they might look the same, a power strip does not protect your devices from power surges or measure the total voltage of all devices plugged in.
Although it might be easy to get confused between the two because they both look the same, a surge protector is much more beneficial than a power strip.
A power strip is much more dangerous than a surge protector because it can be overloaded by plugging in too many high-wattage devices, resulting in it becoming burnt out or, in the worst case, catching fire.
This means that a power strip is more likely to cause accidents than an outlet on the wall, and it might even deceive you into thinking you are protected because it looks so much like a power strip.
Can You Use a Smart Plug With a Surge Protector?
You can use a smart plug with a surge protector as long as the wattage of all the devices connected to the surge protector does not exceed the wattage of the smart plug.
To find out the wattage your smart plug supports, you will need to read the manual guide that comes with your smart plug.
Alternatively, you can try searching for the wattage online. When performing an online search, use specific keywords and ensure that the wattage is accurate to your smart plug.
Otherwise, you could cause your smart plug to blow out due to excessive wattage.
To get an idea of the wattage of everyday household items, you can refer to this guide by DaftLogic. Even without this handy list, you can probably guess that it might not be the best idea to plug five space heaters into the surge protector.
Can I Plug a Smart Plug Into a Surge Protector?
You can plug a smart plug into a surge protector as long as you don’t exceed the wattage specifications of the surge protector. However, using a smart plug this way will cover up outlets, so you might want to consider plugging it into a wall outlet instead.
When I talk about wattage specifications, it just means that the wattage of the device that you plug into the smart plug should not overload the overall wattage of the surge protector.
As with the smart plug, look at the specific wattage your surge protector can handle and ensure that you are staying safe.