I’ve had Amazon smart plugs all over my house for years now. Essential doesn’t even cover it—they run so much of my daily routine. But I made this stupid mistake for way too long: I’d just use my phone to turn stuff on and off manually. It felt convenient, but it turns out I was basically wasting energy. These plugs pull 1–2 watts constantly to keep that WiFi connection alive. So if you’re not actually automating anything with them, you’re just paying for the privilege of using your phone as a really expensive light switch. Setting up schedules changed everything for me. I spent about 10 minutes setting them up properly, and my energy monitoring showed the difference right away. If you still haven’t set up schedules on yours, you’re throwing away money every day.
Why manual control defeats the purpose
Smart plugs consume power too
Every smart plug in your home draws 1–2 watts of standby power to maintain its Wi-Fi connection. That might not sound like much, but multiply that by the number of plugs you own and leave them running 24/7 without using automation, and you’re essentially paying for smart features you’re not using. Based on my setup with several Amazon smart plugs, that adds up to roughly 8–10 watts continuously—about $10-$15 annually just for the privilege of manually tapping my phone instead of a light switch. The only way this investment pays off is through automated scheduling that eliminates phantom loads and human forgetfulness.
The schedule setting everyone ignores
Where to find automated schedules
Jowi Morales / MakeUseOf
With Amazon smart plugs, you need to use them in the Alexa app. You can use other brands’ respective apps or on Alexa as well (if compatible). You can also set up routines in Google Home and Apple Home, but it’s usually the same concept—there’s a schedule or routine setting tucked away somewhere for each plug. For Alexa, go to Devices, then Plugs, pick whichever plug you want, and look for Schedule. You’ll see where you can pick times and days for things to turn on or off. Most people never touch this after initial setup. They figure voice commands or tapping the app is good enough. You’re just hoping you remember to turn everything off, which obviously doesn’t work.
Home office equipment wastes energy around the clock
Monitors and computers draw standby power constantly
My basement office has a Mac Mini, two monitors, some speakers, and a bunch of charging cables plugged into smart plugs. Before I bothered with schedules, all that gear sat there drawing power nonstop. These days, everything except the Mac Mini turns itself off at 6 PM during the week and stays dead on weekends unless I override it. Just the monitors were burning 5–10 watts in standby constantly. Run that for a year, and you’re looking at 45–90 kilowatt-hours down the drain. That costs me roughly $5–$10 annually, depending on the rates, and that’s just for the monitors. Add up everything else in my office and the schedule’s saving $20–$30 a year from one room.
That’s still not a lot, but I like being frugal and energy-conscious when I can.
Entertainment centers are the biggest culprits
Gaming consoles and streaming devices add up fast
Gaming consoles, cable boxes, soundbars, and streaming devices—they’re all terrible about sucking power even when you think they’re off. My living room setup was pulling about 25 watts in standby. That’s 220 kilowatt-hours a year, maybe $25-$30 in electricity for absolutely nothing. Now it all shuts down at midnight and doesn’t wake up until 5 PM. We’re not watching TV at 10 AM on a Tuesday anyway, so why pay for it?
Seasonal devices need schedules too
Space heaters and holiday lights benefit most
Space heaters, fans, holiday lights, and dehumidifiers benefit enormously from schedules; however, be cautious when plugging some of these devices into smart plugs. During the winter mornings, the space heater in our 3-season room turns on at 6 PM and only kicks on if the temperature in there falls below 63ºF. Otherwise, we’re either freezing when we go in there or the thing heats an empty room all day because I wandered off and forgot about it. Our holiday lights work the same way—from sunset to bedtime, it happens by itself. That beats crawling behind the Christmas tree twice a day, trying to remember if I already plugged them in or not.
Start with your highest-impact devices
Office and entertainment setups deliver immediate results
Don’t go crazy trying to schedule everything at once. Pick your biggest power hogs first: lamps, office stuff, the entertainment center, and things that sit on all day, even though nobody’s using them half the time. If your plugs track energy usage, check which ones are burning the most power and start there. For me, entertainment and office were obvious. Set up schedules for just those two spots, and I’d already knocked out 70% of what I could realistically save.
Built-in manual override flexibility
Set it and forget it, but keep control when needed
Scheduled automation runs itself, which is the whole point, but you can override whenever you need to. My office gear shuts down at 6 PM. If I’m working late, I just tell Alexa to keep it on. The schedule picks back up the next day without me thinking about it. That’s what makes this work—it happens automatically until you need it not to, then you get your manual control back. Give it a few weeks, and you’ll forget the schedules even exist. They’re just running in the background while your power bill gets smaller.
Don’t forget away mode and seasonal adjustments
Check your schedules twice a year
Away Mode is another thing people ignore. It flips your lights on and off randomly when you’re gone, so it looks like someone’s home. It’s good for security, and your lights aren’t just burning all night for no reason. The randomness means nobody can predict when they’ll switch, which is the point. I also tweak my plug schedules twice a year—once when the clocks change, and once when we shift between school schedules and summer. January schedules don’t make sense in July. It takes 10 minutes twice a year to review everything and make sure it still matches how we actually live.
Ten minutes of setup pays off every single month
Setting up automated schedules on your smart plugs isn’t complicated—it takes less time than scrolling through social media—but the impact on your energy consumption is immediate and measurable. My Amazon smart plugs went from being convenient remote controls to genuine energy-saving devices once I stopped manually managing them and let the schedules do the work. The plug’s standby power consumption stops being wasted overhead and becomes a worthwhile investment in automation. If you haven’t configured schedules yet, tonight’s the night. Ten minutes of setup will save you money every single month going forward.
