Energy monitoring smart plug recommendations please.

[Riley Blue]

I'd like to monitor the energy use of various appliances around the house and energy monitoring smart plugs look ideal for the job.

Any recommendations?

[somouk]

Also interested in this, there have been a few threads on it I think and amazon has a few options but would be good to hear examples that people use successfully.

[595Heaven]

The TP Link ones work well. Control via their own app / Google / Alexa. Their app also provides the energy usage data (not all the plugs have the energy monitoring)

https://www.tp-link.com/uk/home-networking/smart-p...

[MesoForm]

595Heaven said:

The TP Link ones work well. Control via their own app / Google / Alexa. Their app also provides the energy usage data (not all the plugs have the energy monitoring)

https://www.tp-link.com/uk/home-networking/smart-p...

I have two of the TP-link Tapo P110 plugs, they work well for energy monitoring but I don't really use them as smart plugs (other than lights on/off when I'm away). I'll edit this post with some screenshots when I get 10 minutes spare but I get power (Watts) for the the past 7 days, 24 hours and current then energy usage (kWh) for the the past Year, Month and Day and can scroll back through them. Plus a funky calendar saying which days that plug used more electric on and the cost in the last 30 days (you have to manually put in the unit cost).

As far as I can tell there's no way of combining the data from multiple plugs.

For £12 each they're really useful pieces of tech, though I was swapping them around devices every few days at the start to see what was using the power but after learning that they're now just sat on the same devices (one low power PC to see how much that uses and at the other end of the scale an electric heater in the conservatory to stop it getting too cold in there over winter) so their usefulness has diminished for me after learning what uses the power and when.

Some screenshots:
Low power PC




Heater

Edited by MesoForm on Wednesday 9th November 14:04

[Riley Blue]

That's exactly what I want to do - thanks.

[ARHarh]

I have had a tp-link hs110 for about 5 years now in daily use. I use the power monitoring to turn off the charger for my ebike when it is full or if it draws too much power. Been faultless, but then it run via home assistant rather than the app.

[sgrimshaw]

+1 for the Tapo P110

Currently on offer on Amazon 4-pack for £35.99

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0B82ZQZS8/ref=twister...

[tribbles]

Also +1 for the Tapo P110.

Although I can't get the energy history to work properly, and their UI is full of inconsistencies. I also found an FAQ that had a two word answer - both spelt incorrectly (I reported it to them). Still not fixed, I see - https://www.tapo.com/uk/faq/105/

Thanks for saying Amazon's got them back again - they were out of stock a couple of weeks ago!

[595Heaven]

sgrimshaw said:

+1 for the Tapo P110

Currently on offer on Amazon 4-pack for £35.99

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0B82ZQZS8/ref=twister...

That looks to be the price for the non-e edgy monitoring set. The P110 4-pack is £49. May well have changed since you posted though!

[Captain Raymond Holt]

595Heaven said:

sgrimshaw said:

+1 for the Tapo P110

Currently on offer on Amazon 4-pack for £35.99

https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B0B82ZQZS8/ref=twister...

That looks to be the price for the non-e edgy monitoring set. The P110 4-pack is £49. May well have changed since you posted though!

Does seem to have reverted not long ago, I ordered at about 10pm!

[mikeiow]

MesoForm said:

I have two of the TP-link Tapo P110 plugs, they work well for energy monitoring but I don't really use them as smart plugs (other than lights on/off when I'm away). I'll edit this post with some screenshots when I get 10 minutes spare but I get power (Watts) for the the past 7 days, 24 hours and current then energy usage (kWh) for the the past Year, Month and Day and can scroll back through them. Plus a funky calendar saying which days that plug used more electric on and the cost in the last 30 days (you have to manually put in the unit cost).

As far as I can tell there's no way of combining the data from multiple plugs.

For £12 each they're really useful pieces of tech, though I was swapping them around devices every few days at the start to see what was using the power but after learning that they're now just sat on the same devices (one low power PC to see how much that uses and at the other end of the scale an electric heater in the conservatory to stop it getting too cold in there over winter) so their usefulness has diminished for me after learning what uses the power and when.

Darn it….I have half a dozen of the P100 plugs - they do work very well, but no monitoring available….does sound interesting

[sgrimshaw]

595Heaven said:

That looks to be the price for the non-e edgy monitoring set. The P110 4-pack is £49. May well have changed since you posted though!

Yup, gone back up.

I posted the link having just bought another 4 pack

[tribbles]

When I was ordering them, Amazon wa telling me it was a limited time deal that was due to end in an hour or so...

[Sheepshanks]

MesoForm said:

I have two of the TP-link Tapo P110 plugs, they work well for energy monitoring but I don't really use them as smart plugs (other than lights on/off when I'm away). I'll edit this post with some screenshots when I get 10 minutes spare but I get power (Watts) for the the past 7 days, 24 hours and current then energy usage (kWh) for the the past Year, Month and Day and can scroll back through them. Plus a funky calendar saying which days that plug used more electric on and the cost in the last 30 days (you have to manually put in the unit cost).

As far as I can tell there's no way of combining the data from multiple plugs.

For £12 each they're really useful pieces of tech, though I was swapping them around devices every few days at the start to see what was using the power ....

Am I missing something with these - I was moving them around at first too, but there doesn't appear to be any way to zero their memory of the power used so far, so the history become meaningless when you change what they're monitoring, all that's usable is the instaneous figure?

[tribbles]

You can delete the data:



Although I would say that I've not used it, so maybe you've tried it, and it didn't work

[Sheepshanks]

tribbles said:

You can delete the data:



Although I would say that I've not used it, so maybe you've tried it, and it didn't work

Hah - worked perfectly. Thanks!

I really wanted to know how much my laptop (via its docking staton) uses over 24hrs and the instantaneous figure varies from 6 to 60W. Now I'll be able to see.

I'd Googled it as it seemed bonkers and and it's a common complaint they can't be reset!

[tribbles]

Sheepshanks said:

Hah - worked perfectly. Thanks!

I really wanted to know how much my laptop (via its docking staton) uses over 24hrs and the instantaneous figure varies from 6 to 60W. Now I'll be able to see.

I'd Googled it as it seemed bonkers and and it's a common complaint they can't be reset!

It's possible it was a recent update that added it in.

Here's my laptops' energy usage for today:



First bit was just an LED strip. Then, I plugged in my laptop which needed a bit of charge. The laptop was on overnight, playing a video (I need background noise to sleep, and I've always used videos). In the morning, I shut down the laptop, but turned on my two work laptops to work I finished at around 1pm, and the only thing on was a Tapo smart camera. I then turned on my home laptop for the afternoon, and turned it off again.

So between 6W and 60W corresponds with what I'm seeing. My work development laptop is a bit of a beast, so power hungry (especially as I do a lot of CPU intensive tasks).

[Sheepshanks]

tribbles said:

It's possible it was a recent update that added it in.

Yes - looks like it was updated in Sept /Oct. On the Tapo website the picture of the App doesn't have that export / delete menu.