New to hass.io but loving it so rather than going down the smart things route I’m thinking of upgrading my Raspberry PI and using hass.io. To start with I want to get some power plugs but just wondering which route to take Z-Wave or WIFI?
Z-Wave:
I understand the power consumption is much better but the cost are higher plus I don’t see many options for Z-Wave Power plug in the UK unless it’s smartthings approved but trying not to clutter my house with too many hubs.
WIFI:
I seen some posts recommending TP-Link HS100/110 but there a little pricey.
Another post recommended the Sonoff S20 but from what I understand you have to flash it with a different firmware to get to work under MQTT and from what I can gather to do this you have to dismantle the plug is this still the case (Not very good at soldering).
Basically the long and short of it is that I can’t make my mind up on which avenue to take so any suggestions are most welcome.
Zwave in the UK is pretty crap tbh, light switches are awkward due to the neutral wire problem, and everything else is pretty clumsily put out IMO. My theory is that most people who want a smart home start with the lights, so don’t go the Zwave route because they don’t have a neutral wire, so the companies don’t bother offering anything else good in the UK market.
That said, if you buy stuff that does work and isn’t clumsy, then you can integrate it into homeassistant really easily. You don’t need a hub, just a USB dongle for under 20 notes and let homeassistant be the controller.
Don’t know where you’ve been looking for the tp-link hs100 and 110 but I’ve found them to be actually cheaper than the Zwave ones, and they are really good.
Sonof is no use to me either. I have a tremor, so soldering is a mega no-go, plus about a dozen other reasons that made me rule them out.
personally a have a few HomeEasy EU and LightWaveRF sockets (you’d need an RfxTrx433 transceiver, but it does support so many other devices it’s well worth the investment) and I also have an Edimax SP-2101W which works over WiFi (so no hub needed) and has the advantage of providing energy measurement so you know whether the connected appliance is actually on or not (e.g. the kettle goes from using power to not using it so it’s boiled)
Sonoff also does some pretty cheap sockets but you’ll need to reflash them with Tasmota. Depending on how tech savvy you are, it may or may not be your thing, but once flashed they are great. Again they use Wifi so no hub required.
If you need any more info on what I have / how I use it, just poke me
Good luck
Size-wise, these ones look quite nice and have a decent price at just over £13 - but I am reluctant to use brands I have never heard of for things that will be plugged in all the time. I also have no idea if they can be made to work with HA!
But I do use the TP-Link HS models (as do several friends) and we have not had any issues. I also have several different z-wave ones, but find them too unreliable (lack of devices so lack of mesh and unreliable network).
Just checked the instructions on Github Tasmota. Looks like no soldering is required to upload the software to an S20. Also no soldering required for a sonoff basic either unless you want to add a connection to another switch/button.
That’s most likely not correct, unless a new version just got released, you need to solder a header on the board so you can connect wires to an FTDI Adapter to flash the device. At least that what I had to do for my Basic.
But that only take a couple of minutes to perform. Like I said it all depends on whether @PVickers is tech/electronics savvy or not, I understand it’s not for everyone, but once done, all other updates are done remotely via the web interface that Tasmota provides.
Do people think those TP Link ones would be ok to run a washer/dryer off? I’m assuming they’re rated for 13A which is the same as the sockets the appliances are I guess.
If so the HS110 would solve my washer/dyrer monitoring usecase
Same here, only thing I’d tell @PVickers is that LightWaveRF’s limitation is they don’t return their status, unless you buy the Gen 2, but these won’t work on an RfxTrx as they run on 868MHz.
I didnt need to solder a header board, I just used male to female dupont wires to attach the ftdi adapter ( I followed Dr zzzs latest hassio tasmota video) but as you say if other person doesn’t want to do that its an irrelevant point anyway!
I also have rf sockets including lightwave linked in with a broadlink rm pro. A bit of a pain if you need them to report status though but generally works well.
Lightwave and energenie also do smart sockets rather than plugs. They should be higher rated but I have no experience of them myself. Again would be rf controlled
Before considering installing LightwaveRF power sockets you need to understand that despite being specified for 13 amps the specification requires the load to be resistive. This means if you are controlling a device with a motor i.e Hoover you may have a problem. The relay in these devices is really designed for controlling lighting as most other loads will have some sort of capacitive or inductive component. When inductance or capacitance is present in the load the 13 amp rating needs to be severely de-rated to the point that the switch is unusable for most non resistive medium power applications.
Hmm given washers/dryer have a motor that isn’t a resistive load the 13A rating should be de-rated significantly. I imagine this is true of the plug-in type energy monitors.
More and more I’m thinking these are really just for lighting and other low-power devices.
Thanks guys for all the info. Probably get one tplink and although soldering isn’t my thing (hands too shaky) I may get a sonoff s20 to play around with.
I do see from the description that the s20 supports Ifttt so does that mean I could get it working with HA without the need of flashing it with custom firmware?
