I am new to smart home things but looking to start adding some soon. One thing I would like to automate is changing the lights in my living room when the TV is turned on. Are there any smart plugs or other devices that can be used a trigger for an automation when the device plugged into them starts to draw power?
I have seen quite a few can report current/over time power usage but thats not really what I am looking for. I want something that can act as a switch to trigger an action as soon as the power draw starts to help.
If anyone knows of any way to acheive this I would appreaciate the help!
You may find them on eBay for less $$$. This is overkill for your use unless you want to control power to the TV as well. These are very quick to report the change in power use.
Ah ok, so if I understand that correctly the hubitat hub is able to constantly monitor the power draw and then run the automation when the value is above a set threashold?
the hubitat hub collects the data from the smart plug, and you can create actions/rules based on that data. the hub itself does not connect to any devices physically. it connects to your z-wave/zigbee/LAN devices, and the smart device itself will report back to hubitat
One important concept to grasp is that Hubitat is an Event Driven hub... that means it reacts to events, and nothing else.
Events are easy to grasp when you think about ZWave or Zigbee devices... every time a Z-Device sends something, anything, it's an Event. Door Open is an Event, Door Close is another Event. Dimmer change, Garage Door, Motion, all of them send a message from the Z-Device to the hub and each is an Event. In other words, the Z-Device controls. If it is a battery device, then clearly if the battery dies, no events will be generated by that device. Sunset and Sunrise can be Events, as can "every 15 mins".
For Power monitoring, you can usually set the Z-Device to make a report either on a regular schedule (every 5 mins) OR on a change in power amount (power changed 10%). An event occurs on every report. Careful: Don't allow the reports to dominate the Z-mesh.
Thanks for that, I didn't realise thats how it worked.
As you've suggested I will look for a smart plug that with configurable power reports. Hopefully I can configure it to only trigger the report when the power draw change is significant enough to only be the TV turning on or off.
I use similar devices for my Laundry Room.. one for the Washer and one for the Gas Dryer. I have them report when there's a change of 100 watts. Every other adjustable reporting option is off.
I should have been clearer, I did mean monitoring the powerdraw of the smart plug rather than the TV. Thanks for the reply, I do think I know what I am looking for now, a smartplug that can send power reports, hopefully configurable ones.
off when in standby, depending on the tv I just tweet the threshold to well above standby power
