Room power monitoring options? (UK)

General Discussion
4

Yeah, that was my thought too!

You will fall foul of UK electrical regulations if you try to install any 10A-rated relay behind a 13A socket. The potential solutions I can think of are:

  • Use a relay that has a higher rating that the socket in front of it (i.e. 13/26Amp). E.g. the Heavy Duty Switch. This has the disadvantage that the button on the socket will operate independently of the relay.
  • Use a 10Amp relay, but change the wall sockets to UK 3A or 5A sockets (these have round pins and commonly used for lighting). Example. But this is undesirable as nearly everything will have 13A plugs.
  • Alter your ring-main to create a new ring circuit just for the room you want to monitor. You could then use either a clamp monitor (e.g. The Aeon HEM) or a DIN rail device (example).
  • Use Lightwave RF sockets, then create a bridge between LightWaveRF and SmartThings. The disadvantage being that any bridge will add some delay and unreliability, plus LightWaveRF devices are aesthetically appalling. :mask:

It really is frustrating that there isn’t a z-wave or zigbee socket outlet currently available in the UK! :disappointed: