Power monitoring plug recommendation

Devices & Integrations
1

I am hoping someone can help me find a zigbee or z-wave power monitoring plug for the US that supports 15A appliances for a reasonable price. I would like to avoid wifi plugs if possible. My use is to monitor power usage for my washer, dryer and freezer.
Thanks

2

This is going to be an unpopular answer, but mesh networks like zigbee And zwave are just not really suited to real time power monitoring. This type of network is intended for tiny messages sent infrequently, like a light switch that is turned on once or twice a day. Real time power monitoring can produce thousands of messages a day and easily crater your network. Or at least make it difficult for other messages to get through.

Honestly, you are just much better off with Wi-Fi for this application. There are several Wi-Fi monitoring plugs that work with smartthings, although not all of them are 15 A, so you will need to check the specifications carefully. (Wi-Fi can handle much higher traffic amounts, which is why it is suitable for video and audio streaming, where is Zigbee and Z wave are not.)

Like I said, I know that’s not a popular answer, but as a network engineer, I feel it needs to be said so you can take it into account.

3

That makes perfect sense! I will just use wifi plugs. As always @JDRoberts super helpful and thorough answer! Thank you for the explanation.

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4

I know the Kasa plugs are popular, but I believe they only go up to 12 A.

Currant supports up to 15A:

5

The smartthings wifi plug works good for this

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6

Nice. I didn’t realize it went up to 15 A. :sunglasses:

https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-SMARTPLUG-GP-WOU019BBAWU-Outlet-SmartThings/dp/B07PY4YPTF

7

I use the ST plug for this. I monitor my coffee maker since I can’t see it from my home office. Using webcore, I monitor when the power usage goes up, then when it drops, I trigger a notification. It isn’t perfect, but it works 90%+ of the time.

image

I also use a second plug to monitor my 3D printer. When the power drops for 1 minute, it turns off the plug.

It used to announce the coffee was done, but the death of Echo Speaks ended that.

1 Like
8

Thanks Ken.
If you want alexa to make announcements you can use the voice monkey skill. I use it to make all kinds of announcements.

I hope I added the link correctly :grin: if not let me know

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