4 Clever Ways To Use Smart Plugs Outdoors

Smart plugs are a great way to make some tech upgrades around the house, in large part because they instantly add modern features to anything that plugs into the wall for power. They fit into a standard electrical outlet and can be controlled remotely through a smartphone app, voice assistant, or preset schedule. This makes it possible to automate older devices that have no smart capabilities of their own, as well as to provide wireless controls for anything that runs on electricity. They are also one of the cheapest ways to turn your house into a smart home.

While there are some cool ways to use smart plugs inside your home, outdoor smart plugs offer similar features for the electrical devices you use outside. They come with weather resistance ratings that protect them against rain, humidity, heat, and cold, making them a smart home necessity for patios, yards, and even garages. Many outdoor smart plugs even come with multiple outlets, so they are as much a practical upgrade as they are a tech upgrade. For homeowners looking to be outside more often as the weather turns warmer, we've come up with some unique ways to put your outdoor smart plugs to use.

Outdoor lighting is one of the more natural fits for pairing with a smart plug. Porch lights, string lights, pathway lights, and even decorative light fixtures that lack built-in smart features can all be put on a schedule or controlled remotely when plugged into an outdoor smart plug. Rather than having to remember to flip a switch after a cookout or backyard gathering, the smart plug connectivity gives you access to the lighting through a smartphone app. Some smart plug apps even allow you to sync lighting schedules with the sunrise and sunset as they change throughout the year.

Automating your outdoor lights also has some security benefits. A home that goes dark at the same time every night can signal to anyone watching that nobody is actively paying attention during certain times. Outdoor smart plugs allow you to vary the lighting schedule from day to day, or to turn lights on and off remotely while traveling. Many smart plugs will integrate with smart home platforms like Google Home and Apple HomeKit, allowing them to work with other devices like motion detectors and doorbell cameras for additional security features.

Opportunities for outdoor movie nights ramp up throughout the spring and summer, and projectors are very affordable right now. But enjoying your favorite movies under the stars requires power that can reach multiple electrical components. The projector isn't going to be the only part of the setup you'll need for a movie night, as speakers and potentially even ambient lighting can make the experience a little more immersive. Even if you don't plan to set up an entire surround sound system, movie nights can benefit from better sound quality than a projector alone can provide.

Having a variety of outdoor smart plugs on hand can come in handy in such a situation. Many of them come designed with several outlets, and while you may need to run an extension cord or two out to your movie night setup, a smart plug makes a good starting point for powering it all. When it comes time to break everything down, the ability to control power to different components allows you to dismantle the setup a little bit at a time. In other words, you can leave lighting powered up so you don't have to put everything away in the dark.

Holidays tend to bring forth all kinds of devices that require powering. Summer celebrations are often made better with music, while Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas are each marked by decorations that are meant to stay outdoors a little longer. This makes an outdoor smart plug perfect for powering decorative lights, blow-up figures, fog machines, and other mood-setting decorations. Because many outdoor smart plugs provide multiple outlets of their own, they can also be used where there are several different decorations that need power within a small area.

But automation is where outdoor smart plugs can really come in handy throughout the holidays. Just like with outdoor lighting setups, the plug's accompanying app gives you total control of when your decorations turn on and off. You can schedule them to do so automatically, or you can keep an eye on things and turn everything on and off manually as you see fit. Some smart home apps and platforms allow smart plugs to be grouped and triggered together, so even a sprawling Christmas setup can be brought to life or shut down with a single tap.

Spending time outdoors in summer months can mean contending with mosquitoes and other bugs determined to pester you throughout the evening. A bug zapper is a great device to utilize with an outdoor smart plug, as are fans, which can be used to create areas that bugs aren't strong enough to fly in. Both can be effective in their own right, and they can be used in tandem to keep summer hangouts bite-free. The downside of such devices is that they can be noisy, and they aren't necessarily something you want to leave running when you aren't outdoors.

This is where an outdoor smart plug earns its place in the setup. Similar to the way you can group holiday decorations with an outdoor smart plug, bug-free areas can also be arranged. You can group multiple bug zappers and fans into zones, and arrange them geographically for specific controls. A couple of bug zappers could be their own zone on the porch, while another setup could be arranged near the pool. Such setups would provide numerous bug-free hangout spots throughout your property, and utilizing outdoor smart plugs gives you the ability to turn them on and off independent of one another using your smartphone.