Smart Sockets

OU812

With the rise in electricity prices, I'm looking at setting up some smart sockets to switch certain devices off between certain hours. I have some smart timer plugs, but I've just found this smart socket on amazon, which seems interesting.

Anyone got any opinions or experience of them?

smithy1981

I've no experience with them but I've been searching for something similar, would it not be easier to put a "shelly plus 2 pm" behind your existing socket? you'd have power monitoring too so you can see exactly how much a device is using?

Jonathan

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119631283#Comment_119631283

Shelly Plus 2PM is only rated for 10A per channel and 16A total. Someone comes alongs and plugs a 13A load into the socket and you have an instant fire hazard.

smithy1981

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119631332#Comment_119631332

would a shelly plus1pm per socket be any safer? I've been trying to figure this out myself, but volts/watts/amps are not my strong point

Tree

I went to put a Shelly 2.5 behind a double socket the other week, and decided against it cause there's only one wire into the socket anyway. Got some 1pm's to put on instead. They're rated for 16A, so you'd still be having a bad time if someone plugged a 13A load into each socket. Though I'm struggling to think of what I have outside the kitchen that'd draw that kinda load.

OU812

In the end, I found a couple of Taco smart plugs I'd forgotten about. Loaded up a power strip & set it up with Alexa. It now powers off at 1am & back on at 7pm.. We rarely watch TV before then & if needed, can just ask Alexa to turn it on. Total of four devices now no longer on 24hr standby.

Going to do the same with a bedroom setup also. Very rarely watch TV there, but it's handy to have, sitting on standby most of it's life.

lewid

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119632542#Comment_119632542

How long would the return on investment be on the smart plugs vs the stand by on the TV I wonder. Do you have energy monitoring on the plugs by any chance?

OU812

No energy monitoring, but I didn’t pay for the smart plugs, I’d forgotten I had them (6 total), plugged them in, updated their firmware & now Alexa compatible

vrusinov

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/119636196#Comment_119636196

Quick search suggests TVs consume 0.5W to 3W on standby, while smart plugs consume 1-2 Watts.

So they would only make sense for something that consume over 5W and doesn't have built-in timer. They only thing that comes to mind is router (e.g. if you don't need wifi at night or during the day when everyone is out), maybe some poorly built TV boxes - I think some gaming consoles are/were not suspending properly.

OU812

I've got a subwoofer, centre speaker, TV & Streaming device plugged into it. The speakers are active and don't power down.