Start your smart home with a smart plug

A smart home starts with a few smart plugs, not an expensive hub. Buying a big system before seeing what it does for you is the most common mistake.

What to plug in

Lamps, the iron, a heater, the aquarium filter. Schedules and remote switch-off pay off immediately on those four.

What to check

• Load rating: for a heater, buy the 16-amp plug.
• App independence: pick a model that works with a widely used ecosystem, so the plug survives if the maker's app disappears.
• Energy monitoring: seeing what each device draws makes later decisions easier.

When to stop

After five plugs a hub starts to make sense; before that it is unnecessary.