Remotely controlling your appliances with WiFi-enabled plugs and smartphone apps

You can remotely control appliances in your business using smartphone apps that communicate with WiFi-enabled plugs.

How do they work?

You plug your appliance or power board into the WiFi-enabled plug and put it into the wall socket. Using your WiFi network, you then pair the app with the WiFi-enabled plug. You give the appliance a name, choose a graphic for it and you can then remotely turn the appliance on and off using your phone or tablet.

You can be in your office or on the other side of the world. As long as you have an internet, 3G or 4G connection, you’ll have remote control of your appliance energy use.

In addition to manually switching appliances on and off with these apps, you can also set schedules where you program your plugs to turn things on at any time of the day or night.

What systems are available?

There are two high quality ‘app and plug’ systems on the market:

Belkin’s ‘WeMo Switch’: www.belkin.com

Efergy’s ‘Ego’: www.efergy.com

These apps are free and the WiFi-enabled plugs cost from $60-$70 for the Efergy Ego and $60 for the WeMo Switch.