Hi guys! I’m looking to monitor/control the power consumption of some old window-hanging aircon units, that don’t really mind when the power is literally cut from the wall. I’d like to be able to see how much power they consume, and also being able to turn them on and off at the socket (the IR doesn’t work all that well to begin with). I was checking about the Tapo P110M, but seems these are not sharing the power consumption offline, you need to register them in the app and they only do it through a Tapo account.
What alternatives do I have?
Important, I guess: As I live off an ex-UK colony here, we do have UK-like three pronged sockets, that’s the form factor (Type G, I think?) I’d be needing.
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I can whole-heartedly recommend the Aqara Power Plugs. They are Zigbee, has energy monitoring, works flawlessly with Home Assistant via ZHA and come in US/EU/UK formats. I have about 10 of these and I have not been disappointed in the 5 years I have had them.
Thanks! I’m going to look them up. Did you use them for any heavy loads?
I have some on freezers, and one on an air fryer that does 2400W. That’s the biggest loads I have.
I don’t think I need them over 2000W. Thanks!
If you can get IKEA where you are the INSPELNING line has Zigbee smart plugs with energy monitoring for only like $12. I believe they have a UK variant as well.
This like most plugs in this format is not for inductive loads so it can only handle 300W with such:
It might be OK if the AC units are small enough.
You already married to ZigBee? If not, maybe don’t. It causes 2.4Ghz interference. You’ll need to think about WiFi channels and avoid ones that overlap with ZigBee. Either that, or use 5Ghz WiFi and repeaters to make up for the lower penertration (if an issue).
