If you were debating on getting a Kasa power strip HS300 , now is the time at $55. Sales end tonight.
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Yep, I got two of those. Donât forget the KP115, available from BLT for $22 a piece.
What I like about the HS300, is that it has 3Ă USB charging outlets i.e., no need to use another bulky charger.
Itâs now down to $54.
I installed 8 of the HS300 power strips and it has made a world of difference in how Sense is able to provide information about energy usage. Before pretty much all I was seeing was âAlways Onâ and âOtherâ. Now I am seeing this.
Ok, it wonât let me upload the imageâŚ
Integrated with Alexa using motion sensors and timed events and have cut my electric bill from 350 a month down now to 170. The Kasa HS300 is very reasonably price when you consider you get 6 outlets with remote control and energy monitor at the same time.
Had some issues at first getting sense to see the Kasa outlets. I run a Cisco wireless system, and had to turn on Multicast before Sense would detect them. After that Sense will pick up a new Kasa HS300 in a couple of seconds. They do need to be on the same wireless network also.
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Wow! Do you have all 48 plugs hooked up? I thought sense only did 20 but read that some people have more than that.
I was going to suggested the same. 20 smartplug outlets is the documented max. My experience is that it isnât a hard limit where Sense smartplug reporting stops functioning, but rather data starts dropping out from the smartplugs on a sporadic basis, and then eventually one might see dropouts in the house power data stream.
More info here and in FAQ on smart plugs
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I do and it appears to be dropping some of them, seeing 36 of them currently. Thats a little disappointing, but it still did a great job of isolating devices and usage in the house. I also donât see a way in Sense to disable ones I donât want monitored, so I could pick the high usage devices. Maybe that is something Sense can add. My main goal though was to automate the house. I use Alexa primary to automate controlling power to the devices. It has worked really well, went from average usage of 1300k to just under 1000 during the day, and down to around 600k overnight. Will take a month or so to see impact to the bill.
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Thanks to the way Sense monitor discovers and secures data from the Kasa smartplugs (broadcast polling), thereâs really no way to remove specific smart plugs within the Sense world - you send out a âemeterâ broadcast and every Kasa power monitoring smart plug tries to reply. If you read the note from @RyanAtSense linked in my earlier post, much of smartplug limit of 20 stems from network traffic and collisions.
Even if one has a really âsolidâ network (e.g. better than -30 RSSI to all devices), the Sense hardware still has a hard time keeping real-time track of all the devices. I suspect it is as much a memory limitation of the little box as it is network traffic, too.
I now have 38 smart plugs (4 KS300âs, 9 Wemo Insight, 5 KP115âs ⌠and would like to add more KP115âs) âŚ
When I added the 4th KS300, Sense kind of âlost trackâ of two of the first 3 KS300âs for a day or so, but it seems to have ârecoveredâ them â to a certain extent. However, there is definitely a âlagâ now if attempting to use the Sense app to âcontrolâ some of the smart plugs ⌠which I donât do for most of them! Only for things like the Xmas lights 
. Just yesterday I wanted to turn one of them (a Wemo) off (was reporting on in Sense app), and it wouldnât turn off; kept refreshing as âonâ. I checked the Wemo app, and visually, and it really was off. It took another minute or so before Sense finally showed the plugâs state as âoffâ.
Two thoughtsâŚ
- I donât see âperfectâ signal strength as helping anything. The limiting bottleneck is packet congestion on the network during the polling spikes, and the Sense monitorâs ability to process a big batch of incoming packets while still accomplishing all the other critical tasks it is in the middle of. More on what goes on inside the monitor here:
The Bits Behind the Bubbles - Sense Blog - One way to remove the least needed HS300 from Sense, but still allow Kasa functionality would be to move that HS300 to a separate subnet. I have a couple of subsets in my house that approach works for me. Sense only gets to see the smartplugs on my IoT network/subnet.
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The main issue with segregating HS300âs on separate subnets is that sort of defeats the purpose of having âground-truthâ information about energy consumption by various devices. In my case, most of the HS300 devices are âalways onâ type devices which Iâm not turning on/off for any reason (and thus not automating by rules, either).
It it were easier to âmove aroundâ smartplugs, then that device limitation wouldnât be such an issue, because then, after I have a good idea of the consumption of a specific group of devices I could replace the HS300 with a âdumbâ power strip on a single smartplug (so Iâd still at least get the precise energy usage for that group of devices, and thus reduce the number of âreporting devicesâ by 5).
One âproduct developmentâ thought I had was to have an âadd-onâ for Sense which would be dedicated to management of the âground-truthâ devices, thus freeing up the existing Sense from that overhead of collecting and consolidating all that âextraâ traffic.
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My HS300âs are doing something unusual but everything functions OK so I have just been ignoring it.
The Sense timeline messages about, on off and standby state transitions could be OK, depending on whatâs going on with your devices on the smart plug. If the power usage goes below 1/2 W, Sense will consider that the office state. I canât comment on the other log - I think thatâs from the log from the Kasa app ?? Or is it from a network app ??
Itâs the log from my Unifi DMP router/etc.
Interesting ! I wonder how Ubiquiti detects the network disconnects from a device. The switch between access points seems pretty clear, but I think tracking real disconnects of IoT devices is harder.
ps: I was just looking at Unifi DMP and DM last night for purchase.
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Amazon has the Kasa HS300 for $44.99⌠The listed price is $54.99 with an online $10 coupon (available right from the same product page)âŚ
I took delivery of the Kasa HS300 Smart Powerstrip yesterday⌠I figured, at $44.99, it was hard to beat (came to $50.01 after CA Sales Tax)âŚ
If I bought the KS125 at $12.99 each ($14.20 after CA Sales Tax), I could buy only 3 (and a half) smart plugs for the same price⌠So as long as I have at least 4 co-located devices where I want to place the HS300, I am ahead of the game! Plus, I already have 3 Kasa KP115s near where I am targeting placement of my HS300, which means I also free up those three for other thingsâŚ
Very niceâŚ
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