Turning Simple Things into Smart Home Things with Energenie

Installation and Performance

As we covered in our previous Energenie review, we already have the Gateway installed in our setup. You can see it here. It’s the white USB plug on the left, and the small white box tucked under my AV stand. Out of sight, out of mind. On the right, we’ve got the MiHome Plug.

The plug was obviously easy to install. When placed in a socket, simply add a device in the mobile app, hit the button on the plug till it flashes red and it’ll pair; it’s that simple.

“Alexa, turn off the socket.”

In our Smart Home feature we used Logitech Harmony Elite to control our AV centre, but since it couldn’t power on our subwoofer, which uses a manual switch at the back, Energenie have the perfect solution, and it’s Alexa compatible. “Alexa turn off/on the *your custom device name*” and it flicks the plug on, powering up our sub with ease. We can even set a Yonomi App skill to turn on the AV centre with the Harmony, and the Energenie plugs together; automation done right!

There’s a lot of fun things that can be done with these plugs. Retrofitting lamps to have on/off schedules, adding remote control and Alexa functionality, for example. We thought we could remote boil the kettle. It does mean flicking the kettle switch on while the plug is off at the wall. However, so long as I do that before bed, the HiHome Adapter Plus turns on my kettle when my alarm clock goes off on a morning. This means that I can get my first brew of the day much quicker. Not so bad you’re in a rush for work. Or you can just stick with lamps, fans, storage heats, etc. My silly kettle idea isn’t going to be for everyone, but it just goes to show that you have options.

A Remote Controlled Kettle?

Grab the correct screw fitting for the radiator valve, and it twists into place easily enough. Three small retention clips hold it all in place and you’re good to go.

Out of all the gadgets here today, this is by far my favourite. The bedroom radiator used to be screaming hot on a morning. I set it to turn on at 10 am and to turn its self off if the room goes over 22c throughout the day. It also turns it off completely at 9pm. However, if the room drops below 12c at night, it will turn on. Although, it won’t in my house, so that’s basically off at night.

Take Control of Your Radiators

Remember that this doesn’t control the boiler, so if you’re heating is off, turning this on won’t do a damn thing, but you can pair it with something like Hive to have a more unified heating system. The more of these you add, the more control over your heating and more potential savings on your gas bill too.

The wall switch does just what it should. There’s a small button, press that and the lights go on or off. What’s great is I can name this switch “Kitchen” in the Amazon Alexa app. If I say “Alexa, turn on Kitchen” it’ll do just that. I can also add it to groups of other smart devices, not just with other Energenie products. The switch below it is the Logitech Pop Switch, not Energenie product. Interestingly, it does do something similar, but it’s also much more expensive than Energenie and obviously a little more visually intrusive, so bonus points to Energenie on the more natural design.

Smart Switches > Dumb Switches

The plugs are the same, I can name each switch to do exactly what I want. I put this in my kitchen, and I have an air freshener going into one side, and coffee machine on the other. I set them on schedules so that they’re off a night, or on at certain times of the day. This saves power, and it’s just very convenient to have these things take care of themselves.