Hi, I'm not sure how to do what sounds like a pretty basic rule. I need to get a notification when the power draw from a smart plug stops. Basically I want to know if a device has been unplugged from the smart socket. It would be great if someone can help? Does it need to be a specific type/brand of smart plug?
First off it needs to have energy monitoring. Not all smart plugs have this.
Then it's fairly straightforward to use the power attribute changing as a trigger. Then if it is less than a certain amount something happens.
This is a rule I have for our main TV turning on and letting us know when the kids are home by themselves (and supposed to be doing school work) it looks a bit more complicated than I explained above but the basics are still there.
An energy monitoring plug can tell you when a device is not drawing power.
I use Zooz Zen15 plugs to monitor my washer, gas dryer, and backup sump pump which only runs when the primary cannot handle the full flow. These are Z-wave devices. These devices report voltage, amperage, and wattage.
There are not a lot of Zigbee plugs that report power. I have an Innr SP234 which will do so up to 15 amps. It works with the built-in generic outlet driver, but only reports wattage.
Remember that such a plug can only alert you if the plug itself is receiving mains power. Unplugging a cord, or turning the device on or off will be reported. But if there is a power outage, a main breaker trips, or a GFCI detects a fault, then you won't get an indication.
I have one for the dryer, washer, upstairs refrigerator, and downstairs refrigerator
Zooz does not recommend using the ZEN15 with infrared space heaters
I think this is a safety/liability issue. By saying the ZEN15 devices are not suitable for space heaters relieves Zooz from liability should the space heater start a fire.
I have a friend who is retired as a chief in the fire department. After seeing far too many house and apartment fires started by space heaters of various types, he argues that nobody should ever purchase one.
There are various safety measures such as tilt sensors built in, but having a space heater start up by automated control is a bad idea. There are just too many opportunities for something to go wrong. I can understand why Zooz does not want their devices used in that manner.
I have a similar issue with a recent purchase of a Traeger pellet grill. I can change temperatures or shut the grill down from a remote app. Startup, however, cannot be done through the app as it is necessary to visually inspect the grill before startup to make sure it is safe to do so.
I use a smarthings plug to monitor many devices to notify me when they are done.
I've managed to simplify the rule as rule machine adds features.
do you recommend a specific brand/model of plug for this?
that looks really easy, is it an actual smart things plug or another brand? I can't find smart things on Amazon for example.
Which Rule app did you use to create this please? (apologies I'm v new to hubitat!)
This is a Smartthing plug. Samsung stopped making them. Aotec now produce the plug. But any power monitoring plug would work.
Wifi models seem to be the easiest and most prolific, finding zigbee or z-wave is not quite so easy
WiFi models will typically work only with the specific vendor mobile app, although there may be exceptions if a custom driver exists in HE.
There are dozens of cheap Zigbee power monitoring plugs from Amazon, Wallmart, AliExpress, etc...
You can check some links here.
Kasa energy monitoring plugs are well supported by a Community app / drivers developed by @djgutheinz
I think, like may have been mentioned, you are probably looking more for monitoring of when the device is no longer reporting. The kasa app / drivers I linked in my last post poll the wifi plug periodically, so you won't see an off or drop in power be necessarily, more so an indication of a communication error. Likewise I would expect for a ZigBee plug, if you pull the power you won't get that reflected in HE as such. You need to look for a lack of connectivity or activity, which is possible.
How you go about that will depend on the plug you choose.
Unfortunately, the European TP-Link Kasa WiFi socket seems to lack power and energy monitoring .. ?
https://www.amazon.de/-/en/TP-Link-Kasa-Amazon-accessory-socket/dp/B08339SP84/ref=sr_1_5?crid=2MKZDQ5P8KRQ9&keywords=kasa+stecker&qid=1651829130&sprefix=kasa+plug%2Caps%2C144&sr=8-5
That does ring a bell... My bad, thanks for picking that up.
What country are you in?
I could not find the Aeotec Zigbee Smarthings Outlet on Amazon, but I did find their Zwave plug. Not used it, but it has power.
https://www.amazon.com/Aeotec-Wireless-Control-Security-Automation/dp/B07PJNL5DB/ref=sr_1_1?crid=1SKSV6T5MTBMG&keywords=aeotec+power&qid=1651834670&sprefix=aeotec+power%2Caps%2C156&sr=8-1
Hi, I'm in tyhe UK, but more restricted on choice than the US unfortunately.
I have the Kasa HS110 which is energy monitoring.
Due to this specific requirement, I would choose the plug that gave me what I needed. Unfortunately I don't know which plug that is! As they say on the Apprentice (in the UK anyway) "The search... continues"