British General BG Electrical 860 Single Co-Axial Socket, White Moulded, Round Edge

Ever had a power socket in the wrong place and then have to leave it on when you have an extension plugged in and fed round the cabinet, so you have power next to /infront of cabinet?I did and it anoyed the hell out of me, as i couldn't switch the dam thing off or unplug the 4gang when we went on holiday (paranoid it will burn house down).This is one solution to all those people that feel like me and are techie minded but dont care if a hackers can switch plug off and on again! Woo go hackers!I'm a confessed DIY'r and are not afraid to replace light fittings or plug sockets i've cracked, scratched, broken in my heavy handed equipment moves/ contructions.*** Warning *** you will need a sparky to install this 'officially'. Failure to do so can invalidate your house insurance if your house catches fire due to your electical attempts, unless you electricuit yourself which will more than like result in you never touching another electical device again in fear (it will hurt, alot!) or ending up on a slab of cold metal with a tag on your toe.Right with that out of the way - This is very easy for 'your electrician' to install, so easy you could do it yourself, if you dont care about the above warnings.Once installed by your lovely 'electrician' (or you) its very easy to download the BG app and let it scan for the plug and configure the socket to the wifi. Out of the two that have been installed by my 'electrician' both were recognised straight away and allowed me to name the plugs (how cute) I called mine Left and Right... (imaginitive, i know! but you can change them anytime you like to anything you like - Electric chair and cold fusion). Then i plugged in my 4-gang extensions and watch all devices go off and on as i pressed the picture of the socket on the app (Sweeet!). I then put the cabinet against the wall, filled it up and i haven't seen those two sockets since!Now if i'm out and about and i'm wondering if i switched off my 4gang and all the devices connected to it, i can now save myself worry and switch them off via the app on my phone/tablet/work computer from anywhere there is 3g or above signal or wifi.Other bonus that i never thought of when i <cough> electrician installed these was saving money. These cost roughly 2-3p while off (standby) a day to run compared to the 20-65p a day of the devices i have on the 4gang that are in standby/ topup charging. Doesn't sound much but over a year thats £10.95 for the BG smart socket verses £237.25 for stuff on standby/topup charging. Its not rocket science math or magic numbers either...Enjoy life worry free, that your house is going to burn down or that your using electricity while your not there. Just dont connect your router/broadband to it, as that would be silly! and youwould have to move everthing to switch it back on again as there is no bluetooth connectivity backup...PS - you can also set a timer on these via your phone. All off at 8am when you go to work and all on at 5pm when you get back :)

I have 4 of these around the house now. They are all in places I do not need more than a double socket. I have rounded and straight edge ones and have purchased from different places. Varying places is as in every case I have purchased the double socket for about the same price as 2 standard smart plugs so these were not a more expensive option for me.On the negative, they don’t like connecting by the so called smart pairing process. Every one has needed to be put into the slower mode to get connected by connecting to the sockets Wi-Fi first. Even then 2/4 needed a couple of attempts to connect properly.A bit annoying but once on I’ve never needed to reset, even after a power cut.Then there is the BG server. It may not be much but twice in 3 months they have all become unresponsive as have other BG smart devices. Again just a bit annoying and that does happen with most competitors occasionally.For installation they do need more room behind than a standard double socket but so far not enough for me to have had to change the socket mounting. This is very different than many other wired products like switches that need a lot of extra mounting space.Linking BG to Alexa was easy. Wiring up is no different than a normal socket. 99% of the time it has been connected with no issues. You can override easily if needed and it is a simple retrofit rated for anything you would normally run off a socket.I’ve given it 5 but initial set up issues alongside BG server dropping all their products twice over 3 months would actually take me down to 4.5.Over time if BG servers remain reliable I will forget the setup and consider this a solid 5. If it isn’t reliable I’ll be back.But to enable a smart home where you are fine using a double socket, retrofit your current socket with this and other than the blue lit switches there is no difference visually of external space than your current standard white double socket.If you just need 1 socket smart use a standard smart plug. If you need more points use a smart extension lead. But if you happy with 2 sockets and are willing to wait and shop around these are an almost perfect retrofit to provide 2 smart sockets at a good price.

I like these BG sockets. I have installed eight of them in my house now, and they have made a big difference to my Smart Home.Fitting is easy. They aren't any deeper than a conventional twin socket, and I like the terminal size and access, which accepts two or three cables without any bother (even an old imperial 7/.044 cooker cable). They look sleek too: a definite improvement over the previous sockets that they replaced. In some cases, I fitted a finger-plate behind them to improve the look even further, and it allowed me to stick Dymo labels on, in case I forget what I named them!!Connecting to wifi the very first socket was fairly easy: just set up the wifi codes, name your sockets and that's about it. My sockets are integrated into Alexa, and they are programmed both through the built-in timer function (useful) and Alexa routines.The only downside that I came across was that I regularly lost wifi to the left twin socket in the photo. I realised that it was due to my all-metal food slicer (right socket in the photo) and Breadmaker (left socket) obstructing the signal. This was overcome by moving a BG wifi extender socket onto the same wall. This now gives me a very reliable signal.The price for these sockets is excellent too. Great value. I definitely recommend them to anyone thinking about going to a Smart Home. Look into installing a BG wifi extender, too, as this should overcome any drop-out of your wifi signal.