Just noticed that the price for the twin pack dropped to 27.74$.
I'm currently using a couple of those for the last 4..6 month which I have also integrated into Home Assistant for Automations / energy monitoring without any issues so far.
Note: HomeKit not supported
CamelCamelCamel.
Can I ask what you use these on personally? Would like to tinker with one but not exactly sure what appliance would benefit from this.
Something basic would be a lamp or some plug in lights. That way you can turn them on and off with voice or through app if not home.
Although if you had wifi bulbs already it’d be pointless lol
With HA? Old appliances which are not smart, to notify you when for example a washing cycle has ended.
But mainly got then for "power monitoring"
I've got mine connected up to the pool pump. Shows me how much power it's chewing.
Got another on the TV.
Ooh nice idea on the pool pump, didn’t even think of that. Good one!
If you have solar and HA you could make the pool pump smart to run only off excess solar
@Olli: We do have some oar, and it’s heated off of the solar. Gonna have to check if it’s exclusively sold though. But definitely going to chuck an energy monitoring plug in there also.
I’ve been using Tuya with Alexa, not HA. I’m wondering if I should switch to HA, and possibly HomeKit/Siri instead?
I have several of these - my only real frustration is how bloody enormous they are. Makes them painful in a double-point.
That said, I have them setup around the house. One for the entertainment area to power off all of the home-ent type systems and one for the consoles. I know the drain is minimal, but even at minimal, there's no reason to have a trickle feed running on things that get minimal use through the week.
I also have some sitting on the power points for mine and my wife's desks. When work is done for the day, I switch the lot off overnight. Have set them all up on a timer too, so if I forget they turn themselves off at some reasonable unreasonable hour and in the case of my own desk, it turns itself back on weekdays, in the morning, before I start work, so I don't even feel it.
Also in the process of setting up some monitoring of them and maybe seeing if I can script something up to work with the inverter for some better stats. But that's more of a hobby project.
Been an excellent little powersaver to set them up like that, quite fond of them. The only reason why I'm not buying more from this sale, is that I'm contemplating getting something smaller if I can find it.
Pre-covid days when working out of an office near home, my wife would constantly call asking me if I could go home and check if she had left the iron or the hair straightener on.
Once I installed a couple of smart plugs to these appliances I was able to check their status and where necessary I could turn the power off remotely.
I fill up my kettle overnight, press the physical switch on the smart plug to turn it off, flick the kettle power switch on, and set the timer on the smart plug for 5 mins before I wake up.
If I forget to do anything the night before, nothing happens because the automation cancels out because it’s already on.
Are these the slim ones, which you can use in a double power point?
Unfortunately not
No
are there any power points or light swtiches that can be connected voa home automation? rather buying these plugs?
Yes
Guys be mindful that you wont be able to use the adjacent socket as these are little beefy.
The price dropped from $34.99 (RRP), FIY.
Savings of ~$3.60/piece not good enough for me to decide these are going to be my smart plugs.
Do these work with Smart Life App?
Tempting but they do take up too much space. Wish they made them like the Kogan ones (no longer avail) which are nice and slim. My experience with these are:
Pros:
- Price is decent when on sale.
- Power consumption shown live is accurate.
- Works with HomeAssistant which gives decent Graphs and better than the Meross App.
Cons:
- Bulky and cannot use socket next to it.
- App is poorly designed as one could easily accidentally switch it off (or on) if not careful when going in to view device settings, power use etc.
- Power Use Report via App: Limited stats and only has cumulative totals for: Past 1 Day, Past 1 Week & All time. Not useful for long term stats e.g. if one has being using it for a year, it does not show monthly totals or offer a way to select a date range. This is a necessity if one wants to see how power consumption changes from Winter, Spring, Summer, Autumn etc. I prefer the Kogan App which does show monthly totals but they don't work in HASS which is a shame!
Regardless, nice deal and decent price. Great for quickly checking what power is being used by a device.
I was using some other (I think "Brilliant" brand) plugs which I was flashing with ESPHome to integrate with Home Assistant - they worked well but it is a pain. These might be a good replacement for those things I want to turn on and off with Alexa.
Any idea if they would fit side by side in an external power point (which are a bit more widely spaced)?
https://www.bunnings.com.au/deta-outdoor-double-power-point-…
No idea as don't know the space between that socket.
Sizewise: These Meross plugs are approx 66.5mm wide. My Kogan ones are approx 44mm wide and they fit snugly together in a standard household socket, nothing wider would fit side by side.
Great, thanks for the measurements. I will check the size between the sockets and estimate from there.
Instead of using a widely-spaced outdoor dual GPO and using smart plugs that aren't rater for outdoor use, I suggest using a native Zigbee smart outdoor GPO like this:
https://www.ceilingfansdirect.com.au/shop/zigbee/white-merca…
I personally use one of these and it's great. Integrates natively with ZHA (and will work in Zigbee2MQTT with some fiddling), and means you're not compromising weather resistance like you will if you use a smart plug (that isn't weather rated) on a standard outdoor GPO.
Strictly speaking even though it's illegal to install the GPO without a licensed sparkie, it's easy to do it yourself if you're willing to take that risk.
Once the automation set (eg. Turn on/off at certain time), would they continue working without internet?
I have lot of these they are much more reliable than others I have tried like sonoff or magic. I've got bulbs also … The bulk of them is annoying but I buy the $1-$2 short extension leads from Bunnings and stick them at the end of those when I need to.
If your looking for slimmer designs there's these but they are kind of pricey.
https://www.bunnings.com.au/arlec-white-grid-connect-smart-p…
Ive had mine for several months now but theres currently a bug.
The energy consumption daily count does not reset every 24hrs.
Ive already logged a ticket with Meross and they are working on a fix.
This bug appeared recently when they updated the GUI on the phone app.
I use power monitioring plugs to trigger notifications of completed cycles in my dishwasher, washing machine and dryer.
In home assistant automations, i just set "if using more than x watts for 2mins, then using less than 5w for more than 2mins, send notification"
Have it setup to just ping my phone with notification, did have it announce it over my google homes until my wife chucked the shits.
Assuming you cant flash these with Tasmota also…
did have it announce it over my google homes until my wife chucked the shits.
😂
Note: HomeKit not supported with the linked product from OP