Currant Energy-monitoring WiFi Smart Plugs now capable with Smartthings

Just got an email from customer service that these plugs

are now capable with Smartthings. They are also on sale for $39.99 (Usually $59.99)

Just another option for anyone looking for a new plug. I think I may order a couple to switch out my older smart plugs. This way I can monitor Power as well.

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I don’t know if this works for the older version of the app, it may only work with the new one. If I buy them I will update this thread with my findings.

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They can only be added through STSC

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This makes me happy. :sunglasses:

Real-time Energy monitoring via Wi-Fi makes perfect sense. It does not make sense for a mesh network such as Z wave or zigbee home automation, which are intended for tiny messages sent infrequently . So using this for energy monitoring use cases instead of a Z wave device will take a significant load off of the Z wave mesh.

@tgauchat

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No Homekit or IFTTT support though

True, but there are quite a few other devices that do work with HomeKit or IFTTT and provide energy monitoring. So you’re not getting both platforms at once, but you can get the information.

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My knowledge of industrial Z-Wave / ZigBee / “other” mesh networks is limited, but off the top of my head, I’m not comfortable with this assertion.

As far as I know, there are complex factories, chemical refineries, storage facilities, etc., which use mesh networked sensors to continuously monitor critical values such as temperature and power utilization.

Even in the case of SmartThings which has “bazillions” of smart-outlets with overly chatty power utilization reporting configured, there is no evidence that this is the cause of any mesh load issues.

If this were the case, changing reporting interval is such a trivial fix that SmartThings could have implemented it a dozen times by now.

And I really can’t presume that the networking / device hardware experts at SmartThings are unaware of this. At SDC we spoke to a couple of high-ranking engineers who are well aware of the nature of event traffic of a variety of device types (including volume up/down on Smart TVs as a vastly different example), and they were unconcerned.

Zigbee 101: the profile matters.

Yes, Zigbee was originally deployed in sensor nets. I have worked on some that had literally thousands of sensors.

But it’s not the zigbee home automation profile (ZHA) that smartthings uses.

And most of those sensors are not doing realtime “continuous” reporting. They are battery-operated sleepy devices. That’s not how the consumer oriented “real time energy reporting” mains powered devices work For people who want to know if their television is on or their dryer has stopped.

Also, many of those Sensor nets use a “cluster tree“ topology, not mesh. Zigbee can be configured for several different topologies, including star, cluster tree, Peer to peer mesh etc.

For real time energy reporting, we would likely use the “Zigbee smart energy (SE) “ profile which was specifically not included in zigbee 3.0.

All of that said, I stand by the comments without further explanation for Zwave. :sunglasses:

As far as what smartthings engineers have to be concerned about, as they’ve told us many times their typical customer has 15 or fewer devices and never uses any custom code. ( which is probably why they don’t even explain what a repeater is in their setup literature.) I’m not worried about those customers in this regard unless they happen to put 2 zwave realtime energy reporting devices in the same room.

(emphasis mine)…

The odds of that are pretty high.

I really don’t have a particularly large number of devices, but my small living room has 3 Z-Wave outlets. They are not energy reporting, though.

But I presume customers will frequently stick to one brand (particularly within close proximity) and having a few table/floor lamps around a room using ZigBee or Z-Wave pocket sockets seems likely.

I guess what I’m saying is that there has to be a non-trivial number of customers with “excessive” mesh traffic in their homes due to energy reporting - and that it is a trivial issue to solve (most or all such devices can be sent a configuration cluster (currently hardcoded in the DH) with a higher maximum frequency or higher delta threshold setting).

If no one at SmartThings cares about mesh congestion, and if mesh congestion is a serious risk, then, goshdarnit, that’s a really disturbing situation. :upside_down_face:.

I won’t say “no one” but the fact that ST support regularly tells customers that running a zwave repair utility can “make things worse” will make any nonSmartThings certified Z wave engineer’s head explode. :scream:

I’m not saying it’s not a true statement. But the fact that it’s a true statement means we’re clearly not in Kansas anymore. :wink:

Mesh efficiency is obviously not a very high corporate priority given their expected customer base. But we’re getting way off topic here.

Open up a new thread if you want to discuss protocols or efficient network deployment.

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I got an answer back from Currant support: the two sockets can be independently controlled from SmartThings. Another plus. :sunglasses:

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Can I get a few example use cases for this specific device? I would love to use more energy monitoring in my home. Use cases I’m thinking of are power strips for my entertainment system and another for my home office, but keeping the mesh routers live.

This specific device is not part of your mesh: it’s Wi-Fi.

Typically people use energy monitoring devices for one of two reasons:

One) they are trying to track down precise energy use in their home, either because they’re trying to cut back on Items that don’t need to be on or because they use solar or generator power.

Two) they want to be notified when an outlet is in use or stops being in use. For example, they want to know if their kids turned on the TV in their rooms or they want to know when the dryer finishes running.

But I don’t know exactly what the integration looks like for this device, so I don’t know exactly what options will be available for automations/notifications with it.

I use a lot (25ish) of sockets and power strips with energy monitoring! :nerd_face: Some rooms have 2 or 3 Iris plugs right next to each other. I haven’t noticed any issues. So much more you can do with a plug that has energy and power monitoring!

This one has 2 plugs and analytics so not a horrible price at $20/plug. Picking up one to play around with.

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Curious if instead of installing those 25 outlet/devices, another option I’ve been eyeing is something like sense. https://sense.com

Of course you lose the smart features.

I have already went through the process of figuring out energy consumption.

Here are a couple of use cases for me:

If power stays below 5w for 2 minutes then send notification that the clothes are dry.

If power rises above 10w then the car is charging.

If heaters stays above 100w for 2 hours then turn off.

If presence sensor leaves and tv plug is above 10w then turn off Harmony activity.

Here’s an example of one monitoring energy usage and sending notifications. After using it for about four months, found out it was cheaper to just use gas!

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We have a few space heaters this would be interesting for, however can these plugs handle that type of power draw? Same with dryer.

Currant will also have 15 and 20 amp Smart Wall Outlet.

The Iris Smart Plugs are badass. Car charger uses 1500watts and never had an issue. Here’s the one I use for the heaters:

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It’s official. I do not like you! :weary::rofl::rofl: Just spent the last two hours researching this. Guess what? Came across this!

Purchased but now have to explain to the Mrs. that it’s @Spartysh32 fault and I actually do have self control.

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