The world is getting smarter. Or, at least, our devices are. Smart phones, smart watches and now smart homes. Name an appliance and there’s probably a version you can talk to and tell it to do whatever you want. Your refrigerator can sort food for you. Your phone may turn off the lights from a different country.
These smart devices are usually controlled by an artificial intelligence assistant, and the same goes for Amazon’s Smart Home ecosystem: Alexa will be at your entire disposal. One of the most recent additions to their range is the Smart Plug. It can be used to turn on or off devices that are not smart themselves using a voice command or at the behest of a routine you have set up.
How does it all work?
As mentioned above, the bread and butter of home automation is achieved through the use of what Amazon calls Routines. You schedule them into your Alexa app and set up a list of instructions the assistant will follow. You can use these routines to do all kinds of things, from playing your favorite music and slowly turning on the lights to help you wake up, to making an espresso when you walk in the front door.
Routines are usually set to run at a specific time, but they’re actually quite flexible if you want to do something deeper, like turning things off after they’ve been on for a specific time. For example, if you know you’ll always be out of the house an hour after you wake up, you can set your Routine so that everything that’s been on goes off again an hour later. That way you won’t have to worry about turning everything off before you get to work.
Set up a timed routine
While it can be a little complicated to set up, once you have your routines in place, they can really make your life easier and save you a lot of time. You’ll never have to worry about whether you’ve left the oven on again, as you can rest assured that you’ve already told Alexa to turn it off for you (although you don’t need to tell whoever you’re using). This is an excuse, of course!)
Let’s take a look at an example routine, so you can get an idea of what kind of things you can set up and how it works. For this example, we’ll set the plug to plug in a bedside lamp and then set up a timed routine to automatically turn off again after an hour. We’ll assume it’s the only plug you have so far.
Set up the smart plug
- Connect the lamp to the Smart Plug.
- Plug the Smart Plug into the power outlet.
- Open the Alex app from the home screen of your Android, iOS, or FireOS device.
- Tap on Devices
- Then tap Plugs.
- Now, play First plug.
- Play the Settings gear wheel at the top right of the screen.
- Tap the device name and then rename it to Bedroom Lamp.
Set up the timed routine
- Return to the Alexa app home window.
- Play the Menu button at the bottom right of the screen.
- Then touch Routines.
- Tap the plus (+) button at the top right of the screen.
- Tap on When this happensand choose how you want to activate the Routine. It could be a certain time or a voice. command like “Alexa, good morning.”
- Next, tap the plus sign (+) next to Add action.
- Now, play Smart House.
- From here, tap Control device.
- Tap on bedroom lamp.
- Tap to In.
- Tap on Next.
- Again, tap the plus sign (+) next to Add action.
- Scroll down to Wait.
- Drag the scroll wheels on the screen to set it to 1 hour.
- Then touch Next.
- Once again, tap the plus sign (+) next to Add action.
- Tap on Smart House.
- Tap on Control device.
- Tap on bedroom lamp.
- Finally, tap Off.
This very simple routine will now automatically turn on your bedroom light when you say “Alexa, good morning”, and then an hour later the lights will automatically turn off. You can easily add other devices and actions to this routine, like getting a weather report or turning on your coffee machine. You can even chain together some standby commands to have a continuous routine that turns things on and off based on timers you’ve set.
Carpe Diem a little faster
Using Timed Routines, you can use the standby command to let Alexa make sure everything in your home happens when you want it and is off without you having to think twice. If you have any incredibly clever routines that have made your day so much easier, why not share them with us in the comments section below?
