Smartplugs - suggestions?

sphinx99

[H]ard|Gawd
Joined
Dec 23, 2006
Messages
1,059
I love my Kill-a-watt - I personally believe that there's a lot of value in understanding power usage of the stuff we buy, own and use. That said, I've been been hoping for a more comprehensive solution, perhaps a bit closer to whole-home, and wanted to ask if anyone's invested in this area. My goals:

- Something at the 120VAC socket - either placing the faceplate or attached to it
- Ideally has Kill-a-watt style power consumption monitoring with some logging
- I don't mind a proprietary SW framework as long as it's reasonably supported. If this is done through any of the major Smart Home frameworks, I would need Apple Home and Amazon Alexa support (both) since if I invested in a bunch of these devices I'd need them to work across my home (Apple) and a second family home (Amazon)
- I'm most interested in power monitoring (data collection, logging, analysis) but control (e.g. remote power on/off) would be a nice to have
- Reasonably low cost to be able to purchase 10-20 of these things to capture most of my discretionary power loads

Any suggestions, experience or advice?
 
For whole-house, check out Sense. It learns the devices in your home and tracks usage - even integrates with IFTTT although the response is slow. If you're really wanting to monitor a specific circuit closely, you can install some clamps to monitor it (I think it plugs into what would have been the solar input). For individual outlets/devices, I wouldn't do anything other than Z-Wave - a standard as opposed to a vendor with a proprietary ecosystem. Zooz cords are inexpensive and monitor power usage - and of course you can turn them on and off remotely- our whole house is essentially Z-Wave and Zigbee in terms of outlets, switches, and sensors.

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https://sense.com/
 
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