Turn any appliances into smart devices with these Connect SmartHome smart power boards and plugs

By

 Michael Aulia

You may already have smart devices like electrical appliances around that you can schedule from an app, or turn on/off remotely. It’s all good and dandy, but what about your other dumb devices?

There are times when you wish you can turn your room heater from office on as you are finishing work, or turn that bedroom lights off without having to get up from bed.

Thankfully, through these smart power boards and plugs from Connect SmartHome, you can turn any dumb appliances into smart appliances (assuming they are using 2400 Watts of power or less).

Connect Smart 4 Outlet Powerboard with 2x USB

The Connect Smart 4 Outlet Powerboard with 2x USB has 4 standard Australian plugs with good spacing in between, plus 2x USB ports (5V, 2.4A shared). This offers a power extension (5m cable length) to an existing wall socket but you can also plug a USB cable to charge your smartphones and other small devices like your Bluetooth earphones.

It has a Master power button to turn the whole board on and off, but more interestingly, each plug can be controlled remotely via the app.

Each of the power switches can be renamed and also scheduled separately. For example, you may connect a dumb table or floor lamp to one of the switches, and set a schedule to turn it on in the evening + off in the morning.

Switch 5 corresponds to both USB slots.

The powerboard also supports Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant so you can use your voice to turn the whole powerboard on and off. You can’t control each switch separately with your voice though, but that is expected.

It also has a surge and short circuit protection, and there is a safety overload switch that you can press to reset should an incident happen.

Connect Smart 4 Outlet Powerboard with 2x USB ports retails for AU$49.95.

Connect Smart Wi-Fi Plug with Dual USB and Power Monitor is a smart plug with 1x Standard Australia plug and 2x USB ports (shared 5V, 2.4A). I like the slim design as it doesn’t take much space on a powerboard (i.e it doesn’t take up two socket spaces).

Similarly to the power board, you can access the plug via the app remotely. You can also set a schedule for the plug to turn on and off, and a timer – which is quite handy if you want to turn a heater on for a few hours while you go to sleep, for example.

You can have a look at the energy used by the device plugged into the plug. For example here, I plugged my iron and you can see that it’s using 2300.5 Watts of power. With the in-app power monitoring, you can check how much power your appliances are using so you can adjust your power usage accordingly.

But the good thing about it is that if you somehow forget to turn an appliance off when you go to work, you can always check and do it through the app wherever you are. Or if you have an Alexa or Google device, you can use your voice to turn the plug on and off.

Connect Smart Wi-Fi Plug with Dual USB and Power Monitor retails for AU$19.95.