firepennyWhats everyone using for smart plugs.
Stephen Collins@firepenny I have a bunch of TP-Link Tapo P110Ms in most places. I also have a couple of Athom ESP32 plugs where I don't want a relay tripping, e.g. fridges.
ESP32-C3 AU Plug For ESPHome | AthomTech
Pre Flashed ESPHome ESP32-C3 EU Plug Cosumption monitoring The measurement error of active power about 0.2%The measurement error of effective current is 0.5%The measurement error of effective voltage is 0.5% Build in ESP32-C3 chipset with 4M flash Yaml File Download: https://github.com/athom-tech/esp32-configs/blob/main/athom-smart-plug.yaml Specification: Input voltage：100-240VAC 50/60Hz Current：10A(Max) Power rating：3680W Standard：AU Wireless standard：IEEE802.11b/g/n,2.4GHz Housing Color：Whtie Size：50mm*50mm*30mm Operation Temperature：-20℃～+50℃ Plastic material:ABS+PC Fire-protection rating:94-V0 GPIOs: GPIO# ComponentGPIO20 CSE7766 RxGPIO3 ButtonGPIO5 RelayGPIO6 LED
Avid AmoebaI have a few Hue ones. Two of them have been switching inductive loads for 4 years now without failing. Got some IKEAs for switching small things as well as strenghtening the Zigbee network. I got some Levitons for strenghtening the Z-Wave network and a couple of Zooz for power metering applications.
Keep in mind that most of these can’t be used with heavy inductive loads without failing prematurely. Inductive loads produce sparks in the switch relay and the relay contacts will degrade as a result. You can use cheap plugs for small non-inductive loads. As long as they’re certified for safety in your country, they shouldn’t catch fire when they fail. For inductive loads or heavier things, like your 1400W espresso machine, you also want it to be proven high quality.
But yeah, the vast majority of my home automation stuff is Zigbee and Z-Wave, fully local / offline.
I use severeal of these Zigbee plugs that are announced to manage up to 3600 watts but your comment made me rethink my choices as I use them on washers and my espresso machine… de.aliexpress.com/item/1005005734493134.html
Yeah. I buy plenty from Ali but I generally avoid power grid electric devices. Flaws in those are much more likely to result in home fires than some low-power electronic device that doesn’t plug into the wall. If you need cheap smart plugs, I’d get something sold locally, certified in your country / EU. IKEA’s plugs should be cheap. Either way, every legitimate power plug I’ve seen either has a disclaimer written somewhere that prohibits inductive load use or it’s got a secondary, lower wattage rating for those. Or it says it handles inductive loads at the standard current.
With all that said, if you’re educated enough in electricity, you could crack one open and inspect it yourself for safety. It’s entirely possible they’re using the expensive relays. 😄
E: I tried checking my own homework just now and I can’t find Hue or IKEA saying anything about inductive loads on their websites anymore. I feel like I’m going crazy. I swear I’ve seen it written on IKEA plug and on their website. Maybe the all updated their stuff to use better relays? I don’t know. Either way your espresso machine is a resistive load so it doesn’t fall in the sparky category.
shortwavesurferOut of curiosity, what does failure of one of these things look like? I’ve got one that’s running my window air conditioning unit. It draws about 600 watts while it’s running, but when it very first starts up, it pulls about 1700 watts instantaneously and then immediately drops.
That is still within the 15 amps the plug is rated for with a margin of about 100 watts.
As far as I know the switch stops connecting or disconnecting. But besidss that I don’t know what the failure mode of a worn relay looks like. E.g. whether it could overheat and melt due to a poor connection because of worn contacts. You should read more on that.
Okay, that’s good to know. If it’s just that the switch doesn’t disconnect or connect, that’s fine, because even if it fails in a connected state, the air conditioner itself only pulls about 5 amps while running, and the plug itself is rated for 15 amps.
It only pulls anywhere close to that when it’s very first starting up and only for a brief moment.
Claude Flammang@shortwavesurfer
Some basics about different load types and how to handle them, I add an RC snubber to everything that could possibly represent an inductive load. Apart from electrical problems arcing can also lead to controller crashing and becoming unresponsive. https://www.hw-group.com/cs/podpora/how-not-to-destroy-a-relay
Some basics about different load types and how to handle them, I add an RC snubber to everything that could possibly represent an inductive load. Apart from electrical problems arcing can also lead to controller crashing and becoming unresponsive. https://www.hw-group.com/cs/podpora/how-not-to-destroy-a-relay
nowher thank you very much for your reply! They worked fine for 2 years now, I hope they wont fatally fail. In the future I will switch to known brands :)
Came here to say this. I have a few of these. They are rock solid and easily flashed with Tasmota
captainastronautI really liked their stuff, but things have been out of stock lately. Their lightbulbs only lasted a year and they stopped selling them. I’m concerned they are having supply chain issues.
ScrubblesI have several of these and they have worked super well. (Zigbee)
Amazon.com: Innr Zigbee Smart Plug, Works with Philips Hue*, Alexa and SmartThings, Zigbee Repeater, Energy Monitoring, 2-Pack : Industrial & Scientific
Buy Innr Zigbee Smart Plug, Works with Philips Hue*, Alexa and SmartThings, Zigbee Repeater, Energy Monitoring, 2-Pack: Biscuits & Plugs - Amazon.com ✓ FREE DELIVERY possible on eligible purchases
I have some Shelly plugs, some Athom plugs, some Nous A1T (and a Nous A6T for the terrace). The Zigbee plugs I had all were pretty substandard in terms of reporting after running Tasmota for a while. Main issue with the Tasmota ones is that about all of them are based on an ESP32 where the LED can’t be programmatically turned off. On the plus side, they double duty as nigh lights.
Yeah. While most of my stuff is switched by KNX I came here to second the Nous (see here: mikrotik.com/product/ltap_lr8g_lte6_kit#fndtn-spe… )
Tbf, for the LED I simply snipped it off for the one plug that is in a sensitive position often.
Other than that I love them. They are solidly build (I opened one and intentionally stress tested it after a bad experience before), directly work with HA and KNX,etc.
(But seriously, consider KNX people,it’s far easier than people think.)
I have so many of the AthomTech ones. Cheap, small, come with Esphome or tasmoda pre installed, power monitoring, relay or non relay versions, and no failure so far.
troedBunch of different zigbee ones. Zigbee-only means they're guaranteed to be local and I've had no issues with my Deconz-based zigbee network for many years.
idunnololzMost smart plugs also act as repeaters so in theory it should improve your Zigbee mesh as well.
This is a really cool Z-Wave one that I use for lighting, as it supports dimming. Works awesome in HA. I have some lights hooked up to it outside for hanging at night, as well as inside, as no-one put ceiling lights in the living room of the house I’m renting.
StritConnected module for socket | K4531C | BTicino International Product Catalogue
Connected module for socket. When connected to a power socket, it allows remote control of electric devices and also to monitor their consumption (instantaneous, daily, monthly). It is also possible to receive notifications of abnormal consumption levels. Compatible with any electric devices with power up to 3680W wit
I have a bunch of different zigbee models, but my overall favorites are the Sengled Zigbee plugs. They have power monitoring, which can be really useful for automations.
For example, my computer monitor makes an annoying high-pitched squeal when in standby mode, so I have it and my PC on separate Sengled smart plugs and if the PC plug is drawing low enough wattage for 10 seconds that I can be sure it’s off or asleep, my automation turns off the monitor smart plug, and when the PC plug wattage jumps back above the threshold, the monitor plug gives power to my monitor again.
Obviously that specific use is a bit niche, but the ability to know when not-smart devices are using more or less power and run automations accordingly can be really useful.
There are other brands besides Sengled that have power monitoring, but I’ve found theirs to be pretty reliable, just make sure you get the zigbee plugs, because they also make wifi plugs that look basically identical to the zigbee model.
EarMaster
danI’m in the USA and like the the Sengled smart plugs. They use Zigbee, can handle up to 1800W, and are ETL listed. Having said that, it looks like they don’t sell the ones I have any more. I don’t have experience with their newer ones.
Just make sure whichever ones you get are ETL or UL listed. There’s some that are cheap but haven’t had any sort of safety testing done. It’s not worth the small savings.
Ikea and Lidl zigbee work well for me and are reasonably cheap. Ikea’s look a little better, but I have only one because it is a pretty recent product.
I’m a Zwave man. Aeotec ones give very high res power consumption tracking so I can automate based on patterns in usage (can detect when my washers/dryers finish, etc). The Fibaro ones are a bit cheaper but not quite as good (but still haven’t failed me once).
JustEnoughDucksFibaro isn’t a company anymore, so I don’t know if those will be available. Here in the middle EU, all shops are out of stock of fibaro stuff.
I don’t think that’s true. I am just starting a large project and have no problem acquiring their products in medium to large quantities (16 units needed for this). Their web site is still up, no announcements. I think this is just a regional stocking issue if anything. The one supplier in my country (Czechia) who lists number of items in stock had 145 of the dimmer 2’s in stock.
[US] I have a z-wave network of Zooz Zen04 power-monitoring plugs and Minoston MP21 non-monitoring plugs. Automatically set themselves up by scanning the little QR code, Haven’t had any network drops or device failures in…3(?) years. One Zooz Zen15 high power, monitoring device occasionally (every few weeks) glitches and reports an spurious, instantaneous 5-20 kWh energy consumption
I bought a few cheap ones with Wifi (16A and energy monitoring) from Tasmota’s list and flashed them with Tasmota. Works reasonably well. Though I have to say friends had some of the cheap ones fail over the years.
3reality SmartPlug Gen2. It’s ZigBee 3.0, has power monitoring, has a power button, and 3reality is part of the works with HomeAssistant program so firmware updates are really easy. It’s also cheap enough at $10. They work as great repeaters and have noticeably improved my ZigBee network.
xthexderYup, heavy thirdreality user here too. They’re pretty solid, almost zero problems with the dozen I have around my house.
Have the temperature/humidity sensors and tilt sensors for my garage doors as well. Only problem I had with any of them was due to a battery leaking in one of them from the included AA’s, but I caught it before it caused any real damage.
Oliver StuekerI’m using a mixture of Sonoff S31ZB (ZigBee) and S31 (WiFi) plugs with #Zigbee2MQTT and #ESPhome respectively.
I like their form-factor and that you can plug two of them into standard wall outlets (I also have older eWeeLink plugs that partially block the other outlet).
The ZigBee plugs are easier to pair with my #ZigBee network but the S31 allow me to measure power usage in #HomeAssistant.
Carsten O. 📯 💚🌻@firepenny #shelly , what else?
@firepenny Using a mix of Shelly (WiFi) and IKEA (Zigbee) plugs.
If I can fit it directly into the socket, I've so far gone with the Shelly PM version, which has a more aesthetic look to it (no bulges), though they can also be placed in-line with the power cord of whatever I want to control.
Both have served me right, with similar performance and durability.
My personal anecdote:
Z-wave is king. ZigBee is a far second place and WiFi / Bluetooth are a last resort.
I’m a huge fan of Zooz products having tested many other brands and been disappointed.
My biggest failure rate has been with Shelly products. Sonoff is alright but have also had issues here and there. I’ve yet to have any issues with my Zooz switches and smart plugs and I have close to 50 of them.
I was so excited about Shelley when I first discovered it. Ordered a ton of stuff and started swapping over. The reliability was awful. I have a giant box of them that I don’t know what to do with.
@captainastronaut
Shelly devices are rocksolid but their WiFi devices need a strong Mesh-Network to work reliably as every WiFi device btw so in a metal cabinet you might run into trouble . The Pro devices with Ethernet are an alternative or Gen4 with Zigbee, almost forgot they also have Z-Wave and LoRa.
Shelly devices are rocksolid but their WiFi devices need a strong Mesh-Network to work reliably as every WiFi device btw so in a metal cabinet you might run into trouble . The Pro devices with Ethernet are an alternative or Gen4 with Zigbee, almost forgot they also have Z-Wave and LoRa.
Give em to me!
I have a dozen or so, zero issues.
Having said that, I do prefer zwave to WiFi. Glad theyre starting to head in that direction. Just dont understand why zwave gear is always 20% more expensive.
Zooz = solid
Sonoff like you said ok but I had a smart plug fail. Zooz is a little pricier but rock solid.
I happened across a shit ton of kasa smart plugs, and don’t need the range/mesh that ZigBee provides, so ive just been using them. Been working well, they can be configured locally and can be blocked from internet access by my router
I got some NASA devices on sale, they work fine. I dislike that I have to use their app for initial setup and when I rotate WiFi passwords. Will use them until they fail, then will switch to something else.
Check out python-kasa. Pretty sure I’ve only used the proprietary app to set up the first one because I learned about this. The rest I could do on my computer from the command line.
Still using Insteon. Nothing else is as reliable. Works even if the Wi-Fi router is down. Their hub talks to Home Assistant and that integration has been rock solid. Under the new owners, the hardware is better than ever. But I have 18 year-old light switches and plug-in modules still working flawlessly even after moving them to three different houses.
So glad to hear this. Had Insteon in my old house and moved when they shut down, so I’m mostly using eave now in the new house. I loved Insteon, and kept my hub & plug in modules when we moved. I’ll definitely consider using them again going forward.
I have a few Aqara smart socket with power monitoring, and they ask great, but also expensive.
I had a bunch of the old style of IKEA smart sockets without power monitoring. They work just fine, but they are quite clunky…
I recently bought a couple of the new IKEA smart sockets with power monitoring, and they are almost on par with the Aqara ones, but less than half the price.
I am using Third Reality. It’s been great and since they are part of the Works with Home Assistant program, they actually give updates to their device and are committed to not needing an external account on some sort of stupid app.
ikiddI’m rewiring my house so have started installing Sonoff ZBMINIR2 on one in certain locations. My outlets are being put in boxes large enough for a pair of double outlets (total of four individual plugs) so making one switched is kinda easy. Just wired it up without any switch at all and stuffed it in the box. Just have to break the tab on the positive side and wire the unswitched outlet as usual. I then get three always on outlets and one zigbee switched outlet, I’m going to create a label for the face plate front to show the switched one and the back side had the breaker and branch location info so it will be easy to figure out later on if needed.
I tested a couple of the ZBMINIR2’s switched side and if you bring power and ground through the ZBMINIR2 the switched contacts are only about 6v dc. The only disadvantage I have seen so far is that when a switch is wired up and rapidly turned on and off it goes into pairing mode so kids flipping switches are a bad thing but it’s easy enough to pair back up if you have your phone handy when it happens.
Supported hardware “Nintendo Switch Joycons” lmao
Se'eS