Better Together: How to Combine Shelly Products into a Complete Smart Home

One Shelly device is handy. Two or three working together is where the magic starts.

Shelly's real strength isn't any single gadget — it's the way the whole range talks to itself. Every device connects to your home Wi-Fi (no hub required), lives in the same free Shelly app, and can trigger any other Shelly device through scenes and automations. Add compatibility with Amazon Alexa, Google Home and Apple HomeKit, and you've got a smart home ecosystem you can build one affordable piece at a time.

Here's how to combine the Shelly products available at Maplin into setups that genuinely make life easier — whether you're starting from scratch or levelling up an existing system.

Before we get to the combinations, a quick tour of the line-up:

Smart relays — the Shelly 1 Gen4, Shelly 1 Mini and Shelly 2PM are tiny modules that hide behind your existing light switches or inside back boxes, turning ordinary circuits into smart ones. The Gen4 devices support Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee and Matter, so they slot into virtually any setup. The 2PM adds dual-channel control with power metering, and can even drive motorised blinds and shutters.

Smart plugs — the Shelly Plus Plug UK is the easiest entry point of all. Plug it into a socket, plug an appliance into it, and you've got remote control, scheduling and per-device energy monitoring in about two minutes.

Energy meters — the Shelly EM Gen3 monitors circuits with clip-on current clamps and can automatically switch loads via its built-in contactor control, while the Shelly 3EM-63 Gen3 and Pro 3EM handle whole-home and three-phase monitoring, including solar setups.

Sensors — the Shelly BLU Door/Window sensor detects openings in under 100 milliseconds and runs for up to five years on a battery, while the BLU H&T tracks temperature and humidity.

Wall Displays — the 4-inch Shelly Wall Display (also available bundled with a BLU H&T sensor) and the 10.1-inch Wall Display XL give you a touchscreen control centre on the wall, with built-in relays of their own.

Now let's put them together.

The classic first step. Pop a Shelly 1 Mini behind your living room light switch — it's the smallest smart relay in the world, so it fits even cramped UK back boxes — and add a Plus Plug UK to a table lamp.

Suddenly your "big light" and lamp work as a team. Create an evening scene in the Shelly app that switches the ceiling light off and the lamp on at sunset. Ask Alexa to run "movie night" and both respond together. Away for the weekend? Schedule them to mimic your normal routine so the house never looks empty.

Because the relay sits behind your existing switch, everything still works exactly as before at the wall — the smart control is pure bonus.

Here's where Shelly devices really start collaborating. The BLU Door/Window sensor is Bluetooth-only to preserve its battery, so it uses a nearby Shelly Wi-Fi device — like a Shelly 1 Gen4 or a Plus Plug UK — as its gateway to the internet. In other words, the products don't just complement each other; some literally need each other, and that's a good thing, because it keeps the sensor running for years.

Once paired, the possibilities stack up:

• Front door opens → hallway light on. The sensor triggers a Shelly 1 Gen4 controlling your hall light. With a sub-100ms reaction time, the light is on before the door is fully open.
• Door opens while you're away → instant notification. A free burglar alarm, essentially.
• Garage door left open after 10pm → alert to your phone. The sensor's tilt measurement even works on up-and-over garage doors.

The Shelly Wall Display bundled with the BLU H&T sensor works as a proper room thermostat: the sensor reports the actual temperature where you sit, and the Wall Display's built-in relay switches your heating accordingly.

Add a BLU Door/Window sensor to the mix and you unlock the smartest trick of all: open a window to air the room, and the heating in that room switches off automatically — then resumes when you close it. No more paying to heat the garden.

The BLU H&T also earns its keep in bathrooms and kitchens. Pair it with a Plus Plug UK running an extractor fan or dehumidifier, and set a scene: humidity above 65% for five minutes → fan on for ten. Condensation and mould, handled without you lifting a finger.

With energy prices still biting, this is the combination that pays for itself.

Start with the Shelly EM Gen3 on your consumer unit to see your whole home's consumption in real time, with data logged in one-minute intervals. Then deploy Plus Plug UK smart plugs on your suspects — the tumble dryer, the ancient chest freezer, the gaming PC — to see exactly which devices are guilty of what.

The clever part is acting on that data automatically. The EM Gen3 can switch off a circuit via contactor if consumption passes a limit you set, and your smart plugs can kill standby power on a schedule — entertainment centre off at midnight, on at 7am, automatically.

For larger homes, three-phase supplies or anyone with solar panels, step up to the Shelly Pro 3EM or 3EM-63 Gen3, which track both imported and exported energy — ideal for making sure your panels' output goes to good use.

Once you've got several Shelly devices around the home, the 10.1-inch Wall Display XL ties the whole system together. Mounted in a standard wall box in your kitchen or hallway, it connects to your other Shelly devices over Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, giving everyone in the house — including guests and less app-inclined family members — a beautiful touchscreen to control lights, heating, plugs and scenes.

It can also monitor the power draw of any Shelly relay it's connected to, so your energy dashboard lives on the wall rather than buried in your phone. For individual rooms, the compact Wall Display or Wall Display X2i does the same job on a smaller scale.

Put it all together and here's what an ordinary day might look like:

7:00am — Your bedroom lamp (Plus Plug UK) fades on as a gentle alarm. The Wall Display shows it's 4°C outside, and the heating has already warmed the kitchen thanks to your BLU H&T-driven schedule.

8:30am — You leave for work. One tap on the Wall Display runs your "Away" scene: all lights off (Shelly 1 relays), standby devices off (smart plugs), heating to eco. The BLU Door/Window sensors are now your alarm system.

4:00pm — The kids get home. The front door sensor triggers the hallway light and sends you a notification, so you know they're in safely.

6:30pm — Cooking dinner steams up the kitchen; the BLU H&T notices and the extractor fan kicks in via its smart plug.

11:00pm — "Goodnight" scene: everything off, and the Shelly EM Gen3's daily report confirms today cost less than yesterday.

The beauty of the Shelly ecosystem is that there's no wrong starting point and no big upfront commitment. Begin with a single smart plug or a relay behind one light switch, and every device you add afterwards multiplies what the others can do — sensors trigger relays, meters inform plugs, displays control everything.

Browse the full Shelly range at Maplin and start building the combinations that suit your home.

Please note: mains-connected Shelly devices, including smart relays and energy meters, should be installed by a qualified electrician.