For a couple months I was using a Zooz Zen04 with a simple Belkin surge protector to keep tabs on energy usage for my media console, but I would randomly experience shutoffs while gaming on my PS5. The Zen04 would report about 5 amps & 500W of total draw between the 8 devices connected to the power strip at the time, which is nowhere near the maximum draw allowed in the spec. However, something is clearly triggering the smart plug to auto-shutoff which led me to contacting Zooz support, who informed me that the plug is intended to be used with only 1 device at a time.
So now I need to find an alternative to monitor the usage of that outlet with ~8 devices on the strip. Any recommendations on how I could achieve this? Controlling the outlet isn’t really a priority need here, I just want energy statistics.
I have also seen this behavior on a separate unit when I was using it for my desktop and monitors, but putting a UPS in-between solved it or at least insulated my computer from the outages.
Depending on what protocol you use, just find an outlet with power metering. This is what I do on my power strips, I don’t try to control them but just want to get my energy usage from all devices on the strip. I like the ThirdReality Zigbee plugs for this, they are super cheap, rated for 15A of power and have been rock solid for me thus far.
That’s exactly what I understood the Zen04 to be & why I initially went with it, but looks like I chose poorly.
These look promising, and If you’re using them with power strips, I’m inclined to give them a shot! What’s the maximum number of devices you have on a strip plugged in to one?
I flashed tasmota on a sonoff 31 and monitor my whole entertainment center with it. It doesn’t segregate each device but it does show an increase so I can see, for example when the TV comes on… It’s labeled media center in the attached.
Yeah, I’m not that interested in individual device stats. Way I see is that using the media center is a package deal (i.e TV+PS5 / Nintendo Switch / etc.+Soundbar, and always on network switch.
If the ThirdReality plug doesn’t work out then I’ll for sure consider this. Thank you.
