Can anyone recommend a wifi smart plug that will allow me to trigger an event/routine in SmartThings based on the measured amperage a plug is using? Of all the brands I have tried, SmartThings can only see the on/off status or total energy consumed, but not the current amperage.
Thanks.
Do you have a SmartThings hub. If you do you could use the Ikea Inspeling plug for power monitoring.
Assuming you have a SmartThings hub, even if it doesn’t have Zigbee or Thread radio, some Meross Matter over WiFi smart plugs like the MSS315 have firmwares with Matter 1.3 support for power monitoring. The Tapo P110M will also receive it eventually, hopefully soon.
The IKEA Inspelning is Zigbee and the first firmware versions had bugs and will also flood the hub with power reports. Since SmartThings cannot update the firmware of IKEA devices I would not recommend it. It also had an issue in SmartThings regarding the dynamic power multiplier but I believe that’s already fixed in the stock drivers.
If you don’t have a hub there’s probably none, I don’t think SmartThings wants their cloud servers flooded with messages reporting the power each few seconds. In fact, SmartThings Energy imposes a minimum of 15 minutes between reports, probably for that reason.
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You don’t say where you are located, but in the USA, I use Kasa KP115(US) to get power draw. Since power (Watts) = Voltage x amps, you can get amps from the power draw.
But you see it in Kasa app, it’s not integrated in SmartThings to run routines like OP wants, is it? (unless you’re using a custom driver in the hub for that device)
But with the calculation he gave, its a direct relationship, so if you know the amp set point you want, multiply that with your voltage to determine the watts set point to use instead of amps.
Yes, but the question is if it can trigger routines in SmartThings.
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When he says “amperage”, he actually means “watts” and that’s the standard measurement unit reported by those devices and used in SmartThings.
Would be nice if plugs would report volts and amperes…
(… and frequency in Hz to get a warning message before the next blackout.)
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Thanks, but I do not have a hub.
I’m in the US.
With my Kasa & Meross plugs the only available attributes SmartThings sees is On/Off status but none of the energy options that I see in the native apps.
With my SwitchBot plugs the only available attributes SmartThings sees is On/Off status & kWh, but not watts or amps.
All desired info is available for desired routines in the native apps but I’m trying to centralize all of my routines within one app. Thanks.
This may be a bit offtopic but mind, without a hub and a local integration, all your routines in SmartThings are going to be cloud based. However, routines with vendor apps might be local or even run on the device itself which is the most reliable scenario.
Take a classic auto-off feature so the smart plug turns off automatically after being on for an hour.
- With Kasa app: you set the auto-off for an hour.
- With SmartThings: you create a routine so when the plug has been on for an hour it turns off.
Feels like it’s the same, but the Kasa plug when programmed through the app will turn off in an hour without any dependency, without Internet, without WiFi routers, just the plug. Unless the plug is broken, it will turn off.
The SmartThings routine (without hub and local integrations) would depend on your WiFi router, the Internet, the Kasa cloud and the SmartThings cloud because the timer is in some server maybe in another country. Anything fails and your smart plug won’t turn off.
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Yes. I use it to run routines in Smartthings. As a matter of fact, I connected them directly to smartthings without using the Kasa app.
Got it, then I assume it’s using a custom unofficial driver and the hub. Having a hub opens a lot of options not available otherwise.
Wi-Fi that even updates Energy, I only know the TAPO P110, I have 11 at home, all connected to appliances (microwave, TVs, refrigerators, electric oven, airfryer, PC with printer, extractor fan). I control consumption and also control scenes.
With the Tapo P110 there is no way to do what it needs to do. It wants to do automation using the current consumption of the plug as a trigger.
With Zigbee plugs I can use the consumption, but I don’t know which wifi plug does it
But if the measured power is in watts and the voltage is constant, you have the current, so if the power increases in consumption the current increases… P = V x i. Just calculate the other way around, that is, if you want to activate a scene with 5A, at a constant voltage of 220v, you know that when it reaches the power of 1100W it can be activated, it takes work, but it is not impossible.;The problem is the lack of the hub or intersection with ST.
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The P110 cloud integration with SmartThings does not measure power, it only reports energy every few minutes and that can’t be used for automations.
OP does not have a SmartThings hub so is out of options.
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mocelet, thanks for the comments, and understanding my question.
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They can also be connected via cloud connections, but I don’t think that exposes the power draw.