Smart Plug – What Is It & How Does It Work?

What is a smart plug?

Our Smart Plugs have the power to transform the way you power your home—and the way you think about energy consumption. That is because smart plugs give you complete control over your home’s power, and they give regular (non-smart) devices smart capabilities.

Beyond overhead lighting fixtures and patio string lights, you can control your space heaters, hot tools, and any other electrically powered device using our Smart Plug, the CYNC smart home app, and a stable Wi-Fi connection. There is no hub necessary.

Smart plug benefits

You may be wondering, “What does a smart plug do that is so different than your typical outlet?” Well, smart plugs give you complete control over your devices with more convenience and ease-of-use than ever before.

Even your regular (non-smart) devices become “smart” with the help of a smart plug. So, every device in your home that is connected to a smart plug reaps the following benefits.

GE Lighting’s Indoor and Outdoor Smart Plugs feature voice control. With this feature, you have the power to control your devices and lights with just the sound of your voice. By simply pairing your voice assistant like, Google Home or Amazon Alexa, to our Smart Plug, you get hands-free control over all your electronic devices and lights.

Our Smart Plug’s voice control feature makes it so that you will never again find yourself in the situation of finally getting comfortable on the couch, only to realize you forgot to turn off the lamp in the other room. When your Smart Plug is connected to a voice assistant, you can simply say, “Hey Alexa/Google! Power off.” And the lights will turn off. Let the show begin!

For even more convenience, you can set schedules with our Smart Plug. Think about your day-to-day routine and how it impacts your lighting preferences, and then, schedule your devices to turn on and off at specifically set times.

The ultimate stressor? Realizing you forgot to turn off your devices after you already left the house. With our Smart Plug, you will never have to worry if you left the lights, or even worse, the space heater on. That’s because our Smart Plugs give you complete control over your devices when you’re away from home. You simply go into the Cync App and immediately power down whatever device you need, whenever you need to.

Home or away, you deserve peace of mind. And our Smart Plugs give you that.

You will be able to make the most of your Smart Plug’s benefits by regularly engaging with the connected Cync App, powered by Savant. There, you have the power to control all the devices connected to your Smart Plug in one convenient place. You can set your lighting schedules and power on and off your devices from anywhere.

Smart plugs show you that your dream smart home is possible—on the couch or on-the-go.

Types of smart plugs

Specifically designed for the spaces they’re named after, GE Lighting offers an Indoor Smart Plug and an Outdoor Smart Plug.

While both Smart Plugs feature scheduling, out-of-home control, voice control, and a simple hub-free install process in the Cync App, these products have external differences that allow them to work best in the environments where they are intended to be used.

Best for patios, porches, backyards, and, well, the great outdoors, the CYNC Outdoor Smart Plug is made durable with a waterproofing outlet cover to withstand all weather conditions and debris from nature.

Its sleek and convenient design allows you to plug two Outdoor Smart Plugs into one standard 2-socket outlet. This gives you four ways to connect your smart control throughout your outdoor space. Also, it features 3-prong compatibility.

Best for living rooms, bedrooms, and general indoor spaces, the CYNC Indoor Smart Plug provides whole-room voice control. This means you can pair your Smart Plugs, Smart Switch, and Smart Bulbs for one cohesive and easy-to-use smart home experience.

In addition to making your life easier, our Smart Plugs also allow you to make your space more sophisticated. They are compatible with your home’s decorative fixtures. So, when you have guests coming over and need to make your living room a spot worth mingling in, you can seamlessly turn on the bulbs, highlighting your elegant fixtures. It all happens at the tap of a button—or sound of your voice. And on go the chandeliers, the modern fixtures, the works. Your guests will be dazzled.

Do smart plugs save energy?

If used efficiently and as intended, yes. Smart plugs can help save energy.

Our Smart Plugs are energy-saving because they make it much easier for you to access your power sources. So this allows you to turn off your lights and devices when you’re not using them to avoid wasting energy.

Smart plugs also help put you in an energy-saving frame of mind. You are always aware—or are quickly able to be—of which devices are on, and better yet, which devices shouldn’t be on.

Plus, the easy-to-use features make life’s little headaches a whole lot more manageable. For example, if you have kids and they have a bad habit of leaving all the lights on, smart plugs let you turn them off with the tap of a button or the sound of your voice.

You can always check in on the Cync App to see which devices are on. And if they are not in use or shouldn’t be (Hello, secret-late-night-video-gamers!), you can turn them off easily.

Finally, by setting your devices and lights on a schedule, you can avoid unnecessary energy consumption. So, over time, your energy bill may start to pay off. Literally!

How to install our Smart Plug

With all these benefits, you may be wondering, how do smart plugs work? Well, the first step in understanding how to use a smart plug, is to learn how to set up a smart plug.

Simply plug our Smart Plug into a central location in your home and plug the devices you want to control into it as well. Then, download the Cync App and connect your Smart Plug to the app and any other voice-controlled home assistants.

Then, you are good to go. You can start enjoying life with a smart home.

How much does a smart plug cost?

While the cost of a smart plug depends on the brand, type, and retailer, GE’s Bluetooth- and Wi-Fi-enabled Indoor Smart Plug is less than $15. While GE’s Outdoor Smart Plug (with the same capabilities and all-weather protection) is just under $30.

Once you’ve set up your CYNC Smart Plug and start loving the benefits of living in a smart home, be sure to snap a pic and share it on social media. Don’t forget to tag us (@GELighting)!