Hi. I’m new to Home Assistant and smart outlets in general.
Please recommend reliable but affordable brands of smart plugs compatible with Home Assistant, available for purchase in the US. Preferably without a need for internet access. I don’t need power monitoring.
This is not for a home but a concert venue.
All I want for now is to be able to open Home Assistant software on Windows PC (I don’t want to use smartphone for that), turn 1 or more smart plugs ON, close the software while the smart plug remains ON. Then open the software, turn the plugs OFF and close the software. Is this achievable with Home Assistant?
As this isn’t a home but a concert venue, do you have reliable Wifi Coverage and a secure network to connect the laptop and plugs to? What kind of amperage draw will the plugs be subjected to?
Yes, there’s a secure WIFI with good coverage. Amperage does not exceed 15A per device. Home Assistant would need to run on a desktop Windows 10 PC located at the facility.
Welcome!
Two thoughts that you might want to consider:
Find a product that has consumer safety ratings. This will limit your selection considerably as most of the units from China do not have this, even ones sold by US based brands. I think there some that do have rating, perhaps someone will be able to recommend one. This is probably a CYA point, and many of the devices from China are high quality. Look for ‘Overload Protection’ in the product.
The device I link to here do not have safety ratings that I know of, however my second point to consider is using an device designed for outdoor use. Look for a IPxx ratings on the device, You need to replace the firmware with one of the local only control options, Tasmota or ESPHome in this device or probably any of your choices, not only for your ‘local only control’ requirement, but additionally to disable to button on this devices. I am pretty sure you do not want people turning on and off the power at the device at the device via the button almost all have. This device, I have had good success with local control, very good price point and recent ESP chip technology. Make sure they have not changed the internals of the device when you buy as this is happening and makes converting to total local control problematic: Wyze Plug Outdoor | Best Wi-Fi Outdoor Electrical Outlet & Smart Plug
And another point, if you get the Tasmota or ESPHome firmware on a device, you do not even need Home Assistant to operate the devices. Not that Home Assistant is not a great choice, just that you can find or create an even simpler user facing control interface program for your Windows machine that has nothing but the buttons for the plugs. Less is better often.
Good hunting!
@dproffer You have some great point on safety ratings! I wish more people were aware of them especially when so many untested products (they may be safe but are untested to NA standards so you are taking a big burn-your-house-down or electrocute-yourself gamble) are available on amazon.
@Soulless - If WIFI, and external/waterproof are two requirements, then this may work:
I could not find details on their safety ratings but Jasco is based in the USA and all the products I have from them are UL listed (C & US)
@AllHailJ - This is Wifi, not zigbee, in case you were referring to me:
2.4GHz WiFi Compatible – Connects to 2.4GHz networks of single-, dual- and tri-band routers through effortless pairing options for use with the latest home Wi-Fi equipment.
Voice Control – No hub required for voice commands through Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant.
Easy-to-Use App – Versatile Enbrighten app available in the Apple App Store and Google Play simplifies network connection for hassle-free mobile operation of outdoor lights, seasonal décor, landscape features and more. Alerts and do-not-disturb function allow personalized monitoring without inconvenient interruptions.
Simple Setup – Schedules and automations support full customization based on times, presets, weather, location and other factors. Organize devices by rooms and homes to control several locations from one app.
Heavy-Duty Design – 2 simultaneously controlled outlets and weather-resistant construction withstand the elements.
I personally do not like the shelly solution because wiring in the USA is incredibly annoying due to how rigid 12AWG solid wires are (older buildings may have 14AWG which is much easier). I guess you could use stranded pigtails to make the connections but that is not ideal either. Also, if it is a commercial setting the boxes may be metal making it harder to get good signal if the device is inside the box. At home I have the full depth boxes, yet it would be a struggle to fit those shellys inside them.
I grabbed the wrong person when I started the note - my apologies.
I was just stating that the jasco solution requires zigbee or z-wave and you stated you were looking for wifi. Understand if you do not find shelly an acceptable solution. I get the issue with 12 v 14 gauge and the shellies are not rated for 12 gauge wire which would allow 20 amps. I know of no duplex outlets that are rated for a 20 amp circuit which is the usual for commercial application.
As a note for others, I use shelly em inside of my electrical panels and subpanels and I communicate with wifi through the panels and subpanels (all metal). I even have a shelly em in my outside subpanel (solar system) and it communicates without issue. I have no exterior wifi AP.
@AllHailJ I am not the OP - @Soulless is. The black Jasco weatherproof outlet I posted about is not zwave / zigbee it is WIFI.
In residential buildings starting something like 10 years ago the wiring must be 12AWG and the circuits are indeed 20A however the outlets are 15A. In commercial settings it is common to find 20A outlets but they are not compulsory unless it is a dedicated circuit typically meant for high current appliances (I believe it is the same at home… I have a few 20A outlets and they all have their own 20A breaker).
@AllHailJ - We are hijacking this thread and making it out of scope - sorry OP.
My house is in Texas and the document linked below - dated 2015 - states that both 15 and 20 Amp circuits must use 12AWG wire. This may be a case where local code overrides NEC. The issue I was raising with the shelly devices is that they are tough to use in cramped boxes full of 12AWG wire. I am not in the trade, but I have replaced 200+ outlets & switches with smart variants and it is not fun.
I am from Europe (Italy) and there we use 2.5mm stranded wires for 16A outlets which is way easier to work with and I can see the shelly devices working better there. Again, it is only my personal opinion based on having installed hundreds of these devices (not shelly).
Anyhow, @Soulless - sorry for the tangent here. Has the thread produced the information you were looking for? If not, can you provide more details of your install? Maybe pictures too?
@soulless you can also search online sellers named after South American regions for “UL listed wifi smart plug”. Check description, and you will find one that will work with Home Assistant, WiFi and UL listed. These plug directly into a socket, and have a socket on them, they control. No rewiring needed.
Thanks everyone for your replies. I do need a local power button for redundancy. It would be preferable if such button was “push and hold” to activate, or something that prevents accidental pressing. The Wyze device you’ve listed is priced lower enough. If that’s of good quality - I’d get it. Could you please provide with good instructions on how to flash it with custom firmware?
This seems a good option, to. Which of these is more reliable, can anyone guess?
Or, if anyone else can recommend another unit that matches my request - I’d appreciate it.
Here is the guide I followed to convert the Wyze Outdoor plugs, yes ripping these devices away from the cloud servers does take a little learning and soldering. However well worth the education you will get to do it, and the real goal is being able to customize functions of these devices well beyond what the manufacture offers. For example your local button press requirement, I doubt any ‘off the shelf cloud based’ plug will offer anything but a simple press on press off function. However, by getting either Tasmota or ESPhome on the device you can intercept the button and create a pretty much unlimited ways to require some button press sequence in order to toggle the power of the plug. If you do not want to do the conversion of a plug yourself, there are at least three companies that sell plugs with local control out of the box. None that I know are UL or similar approved, however I have worked with two that have pretty robust electrical builds, none that I know of that are IPxx outdoor waterproof however. Here are the three I know of, I have used the 1st and 3rd, but have no experience with AtHom. I do recommend the Kaufman product, very good customer support, however not UL that I know of. As for the Shelly product, I had some bad luck with a couple generations of their firmware so I converted my Shelly plugs to Tasmota and they run non-stop now for over 18 months no issues, as other have indicated it does sound like their products have UL listing, I am not sure of this, do some research. Good hunting!:
Many thanks to you! Even though I’m skilled in electronics, I really don’t have time to solder and, in fact, prefer not to mess with flashing firmware either… Soldering and flashing is fun, however I just don’t have time for that right now. So please tell me if I understood it right:
The Kaufman and Shelly that you’ve listed are not cloud-based (which is what I want), both have local power buttons and are somewhat reliable, even though non UL certified. Correct?
Which of these is better choices without flashing/modifying to be controlled via either Windows based Home Assistant, or any other Windows software or a browser? Obviously, it will need to remember the switch state after the software is closed.
Correct, both the Kaufman and Shelly devices will operate without internet connection, just local wifi, both have a power button physically on the device, and from my used of both are operating reliability.
You are going to need to do a little experimenting and getting input from smarter folks than I on forums and from vendors on how is the best way to implement a ‘coded’ push button physically on the device.
On the UL front, is sounds like others here have found UL options with Shelly. I could not find the reference in my short review of their web site.
Hate to spend your coin, but if I were you, I would buy one Kaufman and one Shelly and do a face off between the two as you learn how to setup them up. Easy to replicate your configuration of one of the devices to additional devices once you have a version 1 production setup running.
Both of the devices will report their current state back to your C2 program. For example, when you start up Home Assistant from a cold start it queries all the configured switches and lights for their current states. As long as the device can report this, Home Assistant will show correct state between restarts. If you code your own C2 program, you can do the same. The API’s to these device is very straight forward HTML GET and PUT URL’s.
Both Kaufman and Shelly are good companies that from my experience will stand behind their products and support their customers.
