As title suggests, what are the recommended energy monitoring smart plugs for use with home assistant? Which ones are the most reliable and accurate?
I’m currently awaiting delivery of a home assistant yellow to begin my journey into the home assistant rabbit hole and want to be prepared. I’m currently trying out a couple of different energy monitoring smart plugs from Shelly and also from kasa. The Shelly app is quite comprehensive and it looks like it’s got a faster response time on monitoring than the kasa. If I were to base it on the apps alone, Shelly would win hands down.
I’ve not committed to either one as I still have an open return window with Amazon for them. Thanks in advance for any first hand use knowledge and experience.
But as thought for the “accuracy” you want to avoid plugs with a fixed/limited update interval. For example if you buy a Z-Plug which just sends the power every 30 or 60 seconds to HA can get quite inaccurate depending on the load.
Shelly works with a esp inside so you can not only own the hardware but take full control (ownership) over the software part too. With the help of esphome for example you a free to set a very high update interval (for example 0.1s).
As a side note: The Shelly Plug S uses a HLW8012 for power measurements which is probably on the lower end what esp based devices can offer regarding accuracy
I like the Athom plugs preflashed with ESPHome. It was quite easy to get their configuration files from GitHub to flash/update them yourself. They also offer Tasmota preflashed. I’m using 6 for about a year and had none fail so far.
That plug features a CSE7766 for power monitoring which is/should be more accurate as the HLW8012 mentioned in other plugs so far.
Beside also esp inside so full ownership can be taken and the thing should be future proof even years after the vendor filed for bankruptcy
They used to have CSE7766 but downgraded to a HLW8032 last year
That heavily depends on how the device actually is calculating the energy used. Often the device just polls the sensor every seconds and does a simple integral. If the load is resistive this probably gets the job done but if the is high and the power factor low the calculate energy can be quite off
Now in case a manufacture ships a device like that with limited or buggy *ware you can change that behavior (and make it more accurate*) in case it has a esp inside On the other hand if it is a “black box” plug () there is not much to do beside accept it or maybe use a work’a’round in HA to limit the damage
*best is usual a high esphome internal update interval (maybe 0.1s) for calculating the energy but at the same time a slightly lower/throttled interval for ha (for example 1 or 2s) to don’t bend the server to it’s knees with 50 plugs hammering in
What’s reported to HA needs to first calculated internally
And the sad fact is that limited or even buggy firmware is sometimes shipped to customers when they buying a device and to often never even gets an update
Best way imho is to bet everything on devices which are capable of running custom firmware (esp based stuff) because that way it’s always possible to fix, change, extended, repair or do what not with the stuff you bought (and completely call your own). Essentially this is something regarding the right to repair
The 7x Zooz Zen15 smart plugs that I purchased (across four different batches) required three separate RMA’s within one year. Each of the RMA’s was due to faulty power reading spikes which would cause the overcharge protection to trigger and shut off the plug.
After repeated failures of the Zen15 plugs and buggy firmware from Z-Wave devices I was ready to distance myself as much as possible from Z-Wave.
I was driven by frustration to replace my Z-Wave plugs with something reliable and easy to manage. In the end my solution with ESPHome plugs were cheaper, easier to manage, and more reliable. Now every smart plug on my network can be controlled reliably.
yearh… I was so stupid to buy 10 Ledvance wifi+ plugs, only to realize, 3 months later when I set up HA, they actually belong in a bin… useless product…
…just a comment if anyone out there want to buy Ledvance plugs… Don’t do it !!
seconds and does a simple integral. If the load is resistive this probably gets the job done but if the 
On the other hand if it is a “black box” plug (
) there is not much to do beside accept it or maybe use a work’a’round in HA to limit the damage 
