Hi everyone, I’m looking for a smart plug that meets the following requirements:
Do you have any recommendations for a model that meets all these criteria?
No ‘extra’ gateway or hub. But what hubs or gateways do you have? Z-wave, zigbee, thread/matter?
Not the cheapest but supports connection via Wifi and has a lot of other features
(I like that I can use it also as indicator light, see Rest Command ShellyPlusPlugS RGB Indicator manipulation - #5 by jhol-byte)
There is also:
I use it with the Sonoff LAN in the HACS, works like a charm.
It would help if you started what model you need (EU, UK, US or AU Plug)
Athom flashed with ESPHome
Assuming wifi is ok - Kasa wifi stuff has been pretty reliable for me. The Kasa KP125M would do.
The TP link integration is solid platinum, BUT they can also link via Matter over Wifi. This is as close to Native HA support as you are like to get.
All that said, committing to a Zigbee or Zwave stack would be a better option, imo. If you are avoiding it for no good reason, you should reconsider!
A WIFI box is a hub, right? A Router?
Just saying.
Edwin_D
I don’t have any. I just have a regular Wi-Fi network created through a TP-Link Mesh. Nothing more, and I really don’t feel like buying some additional module just because of one socket.
jhol-byte
I was actually considering this socket, but I wasn’t sure if it was the right way to go. The question is whether it can transmit power consumption information to Home Assistant? Because simple on/off switching will definitely work since it’s supported, but I’ve read articles saying that these additional features don’t work with Home Assistant, and regarding TP-Link I’ve read that the data it sends to Home Assistant is total nonsense.
I from
EU country Slovakia
With no other protocols than wifi I’d stay away from Tuya and buy Shelly.
I also use the Action LSC smart plugs and am very happy with them. However, I flashed them all with “OpenBeken,” which is a bit of a tinkering job (disassembling the plug, soldering on four wires, flashing via an FTDI adapter, configuring OpenBeken), and I use them via MQTT.
There might now be a way to flash ESPHome directly onto the chip without soldering.
I’ll commit the sun of answering the question that was specifically not asked…
Note that low power consumption and WiFi is not the best combination in general. A single Watt translates into 9kWh per year for a device that is plugged in 24/7.
If, like many of us, you are starting out small but will expand your smart home bit by bit, I would definitely recommend getting a low power mesh network going.
There’s plenty of information and opinions about Zwave vs ZigBee vs Matter so I leave that up to you.
I’m using ZigBee/ZHA and Innr plugs. I like the plugs for having a failsafe manual button on them. Communication with HA is sometimes a bit quirky. There’s an issue at the moment in ZHA since some firmware updates that makes them report the wrong energy values but it is actively being worked on so I think this is temporary. It’s also easily solved with a helper.
ZigBee sticks are available for a price comparable to a single plug.
I agree, but…
A phon An hairdryer running 30mins more than needed in a single year (2 seconds more daily for each one in a 3 people family) will generate 1.5kwh of wasted energy.
Let’s keep things in perspective.
If we’re talking of more then hundreds devices I agree that WiFi is not the perfect thing (also the WiFi router may be a bottleneck) but for 30/50 devices I can’t see the real benefit.
I’m using a bunch of WiFi connected devices, for plugs I have converted half a dozen LSC smart plugs flashed with openbk, being a poor soldered I invested a very little money in some breadboard test clips…
I’m not sure I can follow your math. What kind of phone uses 3 kW of power? Or are you referring to a different device with the word ‘phon’?
Sure, even wifi plugs don’t use much energy. But the op did specifically state low power consumption in their question. In my experience, the difference between a zigbee plug and an esp is about a factor 10. It’s 90 percent of a small number that you save, but still.
Sorry, I don’t even know why I used my language word for hairdryer, I edited the previous post 
Yes I realize it stated that it needed low power but in my humble view, while not wasting energy is always good, one need to balance all the aspects of the system. How much a central hub/coordinator costs and in how many months/years will it repay itself in saved energy bills?
I tend to think to low power devices when I need a battery powered one, where every single mAh matter, if you’re talking of a smart plug that is, inexorably, always mains powered I humbly can’t see the reason.
Or a hot shower (6kW) 
just 1 “more” (unnecessary) second daily 
Mains powered devices even allow to use locally produced regenerative energy 
Unlike “low power” devices running on coin cells which not only tend to be the most expensive source of energy but also one of the dirtiest available 
I get the point about coin cells, had never calculated it that way tbh. For me, there are usually other reasons than energy use to have battery powered devices.
I’ve looked in to rechargeable coin cells but they are hard to find, and the ones I found are so much lower in energy content, combined with a higher leak current it’s not attractive to me. I do use a number of sensors etc on rechargable NiMh. They will die eventually and produce waste but it’s a lot less.
I prefer WiFi smart plugs. Mainly they are cheaper at under $10 each, and even if they run a watt higher than a Zigbee or Z-wave equivalent, that 9kWh/year costs about $3 where I live (!) which will take over five years to catch up to a $30 low-power Z-Wave option, probably a lot longer if you aren’t in SoCal.
I also like that I can move WiFi plugs around the house without leaving a hole in my low-power mesh causing devices to stop responding for the 1-2 days it can take to fully heal. Plus power-monitoring traffic is also notorious for being “chatty” and congesting low-bandwidth Z-networks; WiFi supports hundreds of plugs before congestion becomes an issue.
The biggest downside with WiFI plugs is they are often sealed and difficult to flash with open firmware, so the Athom is my go-to right now because it comes pre-flashed with Esphome that I can customize; if you want to add additional sleeping to save power, I suppose you could. Martin Jerry also makes pre-flashed plugs but I haven’t tried them (note: SwitchBot plugs are easy to flash, but all 4 of mine died in under a year).
