D-Link Wi-Fi Smart Plug Review

I have had a huge interest in home monitoring of electricity for quite some time, and love to have more control of the plugs I have stuff plugged into.  So I was excited to get my hands on the D-Link Wi-Fi Smart Plug model DSP-w215. In fact I tried to get D-Link to send me enough of these for my whole home to do a case study sadly that did not happen. What is cool though is that they are cheap enough @ $49.95 each that I can buy as many as I need over time and will have a near 100% picture of power consumption and control of power in my home.

I installed the Smart Plug in my garage on a plug that powers a band of stuff. The kids have a gaming center there, and I also have a network cabinet with some gear in that runs 24/7.

The D-Link smart switch allows me to turn the power on/ off on a schedule or via the Smart Plug app. The smart plug also reports back the temperature in the room, and of course the actual power usage.  I found when all gaming gear is off, and only the network cabinet running that I’m burning about 67 watts continuously. When the big screeen LCD and the gaming gear is turned on it jumps to over 400 watts.

With the monitoring I can tell know during summer vacation how much time the kids are gaming and if need be I can turn off the switch via the mobile app. The smart plug app and device can be set up to actually shut off the power when your budget for that smart plug has been reached.

The plug communicates via Wi-Fi and setup was as easy as pushing the WPS button on the device.  Priced at $49.99 for those in high energy areas the smart plug cost can likely be recovered over time.