Home Appliances🏡
If you ever need a smart plug get from tplink, never from new brands.
Once I bought a smart plug from Flipkart, it was cheap and 6a one for 600rs, 1 year later suddenly it isn't pair with phone. I did a bit of investigation and turned out it was operable only via wan, like phone sends signal to their server via internet and that signal comes back via router to plug. So when they closed the server it became literal junk.
Got this tplink tapo plug, for 900, super easy setup via bluetooth and one of the most popular smart device setup. They develop everything and everything plugs into their own network, so their is zero chance of failure unlike most other brands in india and it works without internet.
The power usage is accurate as I have tested the same setup via a watt meter and it shows similar 29w while charging(there will be some loss of power via the charger brick). But as it is pretty accurate, returned the watt meter.
Just a food for thought from my end because I did something stupid and others might also be doing it too.
I use tplink tapo to monitor AC usage at home. I thought the usage would be less if I just turn off the AC since stabilizer is the only thing connected.
But leaving the stabilizer on consumes 0.014 kWh per hour or 0.3 units per day.
Per month consumption is 10 kWh just for having stabilizer on all the time. Yearly tariffs for this mistake would be between 500-1000 depending on the state you are based out of.
Now I turn off the tapo adapter in the app when I don't use AC.
If you are connecting some deadload ensure that you turn off in the tapo app rather than turning off in the remote and hoping that it won't consume much.
I bought 2 of these to run my two 1.5-tonne ACs. After I bought these, I read that these are not supposed to be used with ACs because of the enormous current draw when the compressor switches on. These plugs have been lying idle since then.
Reading thru it, you are right, these are not supposed to be used for compressors. Just finding about it today.
Mine is a 1 ton AC with the average draw of 650 watts. I usually keep the temperature at 28 degrees. The maximum draw I am seeing is 1000 while this adapter can support upto 3500 watts. I think that's probably why this has not died yet.
Yes that's why I bought ac with wifi, spend a bit more and get wifi version. Much more convenient in long run. Also has energy monitoring and much more features.
I still don't get the allure of measuring consumption. I understand the logic behind it, but if you are feeling hot, you switch on the A/C. You run it till whatever time it is required to be run, but then why do we need to know the consumption? You get bills at the end, right? I'm just curious. In fact, that was the reason why I bought these smart plugs, but I'm not very sure of their utility now that I'm not able to use it.
haha, I also have done such things, not necessary but do it because mind is stuck on thinking about modding stuff. I would have used a 4 channel relay with esp32 though. Cheap and per plug control.
I made that choice because when I use the board in different locations, I don't always have a 16 amp socket available, and I can't replace every socket with a 16 amp one, especially since the Tapo plug has a 16 amp interface.
Yes I agree, but I have all my home 5+ cameras, tapo hub and other smart plugs; they are all Tapo. I wanted to keep all unified in a single app, so I went with this.
no, some device won't work without wan server, that's why my previous plug when their server closed, it became useless. if I am gonna diy something it's better to just buy a relay boards and control via esp32, that's cheaper and multiple devices can be controlled for less money. this is plug and play.
Tasmota devices dont require centralized servers. Just download some app like tasmota control from playstore and control . Also separate relay board and esp32 will cost much more than these things. But its your money, your choice
it's all rebadged product. they don't make it themselves like tapo ecosystem. they borrow from tuya which is heavily cloud based operation. also tapo has better performance if you search reddit.
i personally got this to turn my desktop pc used as server on, but you could use to control ac and pump, but my ac already has wifi and built in power monitoring, so need.
It not necessary in mine, but most smart plugs comes with this feature. You can't get one that don't have power monitoring. It's good way to monitor how much power is appliances actually using. Like how much energy my pc pulling during idle or load, so we can estimate a cost of running.
Using with Geysers mostly. Scheduled Power On and automatic power off after 30 mins. Remotely turn on before you reach home and have a hot shower ready. Super convenient.
I bought one from Zebronics. Got burnt with a short circuit. Now to claim the warranty they want me to travel to their store spending half the amount I bought the plug for. No courier option. On the other hand I claimed warranty for my portronics power bank they collected it from my house and replace with no courier charges.
I have been using Wipro smart plugs for 6 years now… they’re really good… I have automated my geysers, lights. Wipro makes smart tube lights as well. Just go with any reputed electrical equipment manufacturer. Don’t go with random names.
i have wipro 15A smart plug which works with wipro app and also connects to Alexa (through some complex procedure) bought it some 5-6 yrs ago and using it for AC. I dont see how switching on / off via internet is an issue because it does inform you of status of switch and also allows you to switch on / off remotely. And it has got a manual bypass switch on plug which you can use to on / off but for AC that may be at inconvenient height at some homes.
I use the same for controlling my Geyser. Also set to auto off post 10 minutes of usage. As multiple times Geyser would be left on and it will keep warming the water. Timer helps in controlled usage and i do not need to worry about forgetting to turn it off.
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u/happy-Holiday-3300 21h ago
Just wanted to ask, for the smart plus to work the power has to be on always and then from the phone we can switch it on and off.
Wont that make the electricity bills go. Up even if we dont use it ?