When I designed my game room I wanted to have as many systems readily available as possible. To achieve this I had to use several power strips, and video switchers. These along with the consoles and TVs sucked up an alarming amount of electricity and forced me to search for a quick and efficient way to manage the power consumption of my setup.



I started my search by looking at power strips that can be remote controlled. While they allowed me to control the flow of power easily, they were limited to 8 inputs per power strip. This restriction ruled them out as a solution. With the possibility of an all in one solution ruled out I started looking solutions that would compliment my existing power strips. It was then that I came across a gaming setup video by Coury from My Life in Gaming. In his video, he showed power switches from Belkin. I ordered one from Amazon and tested it out. It worked great for quick power access to my TV carts but wouldn't work for the stationary setups I have as power plugs are buried behind entertainment centers. I would have to find another solution.


I started looking at home automation devices and it was there I found a solution to my problem the Kasa Smart Wi-Fi plug by TPLink. As their name suggests these plugs are Wi-Fi enabled allowing me to control them via an app on my phone or by enabling the skill in Alexa. They are sold in pairs for around $35 shipped which is a little pricey but in my opinion worth it. Each plug can handle up to 12 amps which in my case allowed for a 12-port power strip per plug for a total of 24 devices plugged in per setup. I plugged in the essential consoles and items into the first power strip and left the nonessential consoles and items plugged into the second strip. This way I only need to power on the first plug to start playing.


Setting up the Smart Plugs is quick and easy using the phone app. You can set a name for each plug. Stopping the flow of electricity from each plug is as easy as tapping the power icon to the right of the plug's name. The app allows you to view the total Runtime for today, the past 7 days, and the past 30 days for each plug. If a plug isn't responding swiping down causes the app to refresh the connection with all of the smart plugs.


Putting a Gaming Set up together requires a lot of planning, especially in regards to power. By using Smart Plugs along with power strips I've created a solution that allows me to only power the devices I want when I want to. Since I installed the plugs I've seen a 7% drop in the electricity used from January to February and that's savings I can use to invest in more games and consoles.

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