I’ve got an apartment that is wired with one of the wall switches controlling an outlet across the room, which is apparently called a switched outlet / switched receptacle, or a split outlet (since the top is always on). I’d like to use this wall switch to control several lamps around the room, so I want to detect if the outlet is on or off, and make the lights match that state.
I’m not sure what hardware I’d need to do this - it seems like I’d want something that was able to report when the power was off (which means a smart switch won’t work), and also very quickly detect the power turning on - so something battery powered but also plugged into an outlet to charge and detect? Does anyone have any ideas?
Hi Alex,
As this is an international forum, it would help others a lot to share their experience if you say which country / voltage / standards you are interested in.
I could chime in with some UK 240V 13A BS1363 devices and comparisons with 5A round pin sockets used for lights here, however my suspicion from ‘split outlet’ is that you are in the Americas?
Are the other lights on outlets that are always powered on? If yes, you could use the smart switch on the switched outlet to detect the current state (on/off) then use smart plugs for the other lights (if smart switch on, turn on smart plugs).