The Wyze Plug Outdoor goes further with an IP64 rating that indicates maximum dust protection. You need a smart plug designed for outdoor use, usually with at least an IP44 rating of resistance to rain, wind, and snow. Smart plugs can conveniently control things outside your house-think patio lighting, holiday decor, and water features-but a typical indoor plug won't stand a chance in the elements. This Kasa plug doesn't include advanced energy monitoring features, but it offers enough to save most users plenty of time and money.ĭimensions: 1.5 x 2.4 x 1.2 inches | Compatibility: Amazon Alexa, Google Home, Samsung SmartThings, IFTTT | Number of Outlets: 1 You can also sync it up with other Kasa Smart devices or set up automation through If This Then That technology (IFTTT). Using the smart plug gives you several convenient functions, from setting schedules and timers to an Away mode that turns appliances on and off to make it look like you're home. Apple HomeKit is not supported, so iPhone, iPad, and Mac users should consider a different option. Any lamp or appliance you plug into it can be controlled from anywhere through the free Kasa Smart app or voice commands through Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant. To start, insert the Wi-Fi Plug Mini into your wall outlet, press the power button, and connect it to your home Wi-Fi network. It also boasts one of the lowest prices per unit on Amazon, making it a great value, including for a pack of two or four. That's what you get with the Kasa Smart Wi-Fi Plug Mini, the most compact plug within the Kasa Smart brand manufactured by TP-Link. The Spruce Home Improvement Review BoardĪ smart home device should make your life easier, which means it should be easy to set up, and once installed, it should just work.The highest usage I had was a dual-receptable BK7231x smart plug that pulled 1.2W with everything on and 0.6W with everything off. Not sure if it's just really quick returning to sleep or if it's got multiple power states. I don't know why I didn't detect spikes on that unit, despite it being tied to the cloud. Making it cheap to leave the outlets switched off, but average when switched on when considering the functionality. I remember the Kasa HS105 (no energy monitoring), for example, pulled 0.8W when on, and was undetectable when off. They were still usually better than the Beken plugs. Might be interesting to see if there's a way to tune that interval. Presumably exiting a sleep state for processing. The Tasmota ESP8266 plugs had periodic spikes of <= 0.3W. The Tuya/BK7231x single-receptable plugs I tested generally had a constant power of about 0.6W with the relay off. I did plug them into two separate physical monitoring plugs with consistent numbers and 2 decimal places. I can't even remember if all those tests were consistently on open firmware. I certainly didn't spend much time on configuration beyond installing Tasmota/OpenBeken on them and setting them up for MQTT. If your plug also has USB slots, expect more for the DC conversion and the relays for each USB slot - if they're controllable.īeken-based plugs (BK7231x) used on average slightly more energy (<= 0.1W) in my tests than the older ESP8266 plugs with a similar configuration, but YMMV. In my testing, each receptacle's relay used about 0.3W when on, and 0W when off. And presumably they're only monitoring power usage *after* the smart plug. Don't forget, the values reported to HA aren't reliable unless you've been calibrating them. Energy monitoring will likely cost more energy since it usually includes another chip, though I don't have numbers on that. I ran a few tests on different vendors/models, and single-receptacle 120v smart plugs tend to use below < 0.7W when switched off, and < 1.1W with the outlet switched on. This depends on the chips used, the software running on them and the number of relays included.
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