Cheap smart plugs

If anyone is looking for some cheap 16A smart plugs w/ Energy Monitoring, Amazon has an amazing deal right now.

https://www.amazon.com/ELEGIANT-Compatible-Monitoring-Function-Required/dp/B07B9XCY5M?tag=slickdeals&ascsubtag=c17ed03ed16d11e8ad5e3e364c14c4010INT

Now hopefully the Sense team can buy a handful too (you just picked up a new round of funding, so $25 or so for some smart plugs shouldn’t be too big a deal) and get some integrations going with them quickly @RyanAtSense @BradAtSense :stuck_out_tongue:

These plugs suck, they slow down your wifi connection by using 2.4ghz. You’re better off spending a little more for Z-wave or zigbee based smart plugs. Sometimes you get what you pay for.

I have to run 2.4 Ghz anyway because many of my things don’t run on 5 GHz. Yeah they’re probably not the greatest smart plugs, but heck, they’ll do their job (for cheap). I ordered 4 since Christmas is coming up and I’ll need to get my lights turned on/off etc + the power meter will help me really know how much my Christmas lights are going to cost me to run :stuck_out_tongue: I just upgraded from regular lights to LEDs so it shouldn’t be too bad hopefully. LOL Although, 5k+ lights will probably still be quite a bit.

Also relevant: Ikea may launch $10 smart plugs in October - The Verge

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Still, while the Ikea ones look pretty cool, I would highly recommend the TP-Link 110s and the Wemo Insight. They aren’t too much more expensive and work with a lot of smart products…

:wink:

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TP-Links are $40.50 for a 2-pack

Wemo Insights are $59.99 for a 2-pack

vs $9.98 for these :wink:

These work w/ the SmartLife app which a lot of other devices use as well. I have 10+ devices hooked up to that from all kinds of different vendors.

Oh and those are only 10A vs 16A here :wink:

Thanks! Look good enough for Christmas lights…gonna snag a couple.

I run a separate 2.4 Ghz network for the old and slow crap.

I think my wink wink hint hint might be going unnoticed. But that’s all I’ll say on the subject for now…

In any case, I’ll probably grab some of these to fool around with.

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It didn’t go unnoticed and I know what’s coming :wink:

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:shushing_face:

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I do have 2 of the TP-Link Smart Plugs all ready to go :wink:

Oooh, Ooooooh, I see what you did there!

Any hints on when? :wink:

The 110S (TPLink/Kasa) and Wemo Insight are plugs with energy usage features though (which is the wink wink part here) - the regular smart plugs don’t have this.

I have a bunch of Wemo stuff through the house, but started buying TP Link recently because it’s notably less expensive here in Canada. I had a Wemo insight, but now I don’t. That part is a long story.

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I followed your lead and amazon just delivered some 110’s the other day…what a coincidence. Hopefully I can help the cause…

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The 110S (TPLink/Kasa) and Wemo Insight are plugs with energy usage features though (which is the wink wink part here) - the regular smart plugs don’t have this.

These cheap ones do have energy monitoring :slight_smile:

Aha. Not sure how I missed that.

I do have a few sorta off-brand automation products in my house (some EWelink hardwired devices that I use for some of the more obscure lights in our house, mostly controlled via IFTTT) but my main concern with these off brands is two-fold:

1 - Long term support. If they decide for whatever reason (bankrupt, loss of interest, poor sales, etc) to shut down any required cloud support, you’re left with a doorstop.

2 - Firmware updates. There’s been a few high profile security holes in Wemo equipment, for example, especially for us early adopters. WIll these off brands push regular security updates? Will they push any at all?

FWIW I have seen fairly regular firmware updates with the EWeLink hardware, which at $10/each were an unbeatable deal that got a bunch of lights and stuff (much of which I couldn’t have justified a $40+ switch for) online in the end. But I know it’s risky in that support could disappear any day. At least with TP and Belkin there’s some hope for long term support in the end.

Oh yeah I don’t disagree with these things, but then on the other hand, it’s $20 for the 4 I ordered and I’m not going to use them for “critical” stuff, just Christmas lights, etc, so meh, if someone wants to hack my smart plug to turn my Christmas lights off, well so be it. LOL

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Good thing that IOT devices can’t be used for coordinated attacks, oh wait…

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All the more reason to stick with reasonably big name products from companies with known track records of regular firmware/software updates.

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