Can I ask what are people's experience of GivEnergy's smart plugs?
I've got a GivEnergy 5kW hybrid inverter and a Giv Bat 9.5kWh battery, so I already use the GivEnergy web portal anbd app.
I see there are cheaper alternatives, so is the GivEnergy smart plug value for money? Does it work well? And how good is the app for controlling it?
I am using a couple to control dehumidifiers and find them great. I have schedules setup and control via the app is convenient. can also see how much power they are using, which is useful.
I will likely get more and transition other stuff away from plugin timers.
I have 14, 11 in use and 3 spare.
What I did was get one, move it around to every socket with a device e.g fridge, freezer, Christmas Lights, router, lights, TV, Sky Stuff etc etc.
Once I could see how much electricity each device was using, I decided if I really needed a Smart plug for that device. I did not want any for a fridge or Freezer, incase they went wrong or failed.
Daveb01
I have a large number of the GE Smart Plugs and like you hesitant to put them on a fridge / freezer in case of failure.
However (not that I have done this yet...) it just occured to me that you could monitor the energy usage via the API and once established the typical energy usage, you could program some kind of alert monitor.
I have a small freezer in our garage which is not actually attached to our house, but good enough that the WiFi reaches.
I monitor the energy usage regularly and it would not be too difficult to build upon my java code and fire off some kind of alert when a device stops reporting energy usage.
For instance the small freezer in my garage shows the following consumption:
howard@raspberry:~/java $ ./PlugG.sh
Today:
1 day(s) from: 00:04 on day 349 to 12:29 on day 349 0.149 kWhr consumed via PlugG (13133 secs using power)
Yesterday:
1 day(s) from: 01:03 on day 348 to 23:00 on day 348 0.247 kWhr consumed via PlugG (22185 secs using power)
Past 7 days:
7 day(s) from: 00:02 on day 342 to 23:00 on day 348 2.386 kWhr consumed via PlugG (224117 secs using power)
Past 30 days:
30 day(s) from: 00:00 on day 319 to 23:00 on day 348 9.231 kWhr consumed via PlugG (836581 secs using power)The java code is on github and runs on linux or Windows. If interested, take a look at:
https://github.com/V999TEC/GivEnergyPlugs/wiki/The-Home-of-Icarus
out of interest, other than monitoring the energy usage, what's the point of putting a smart plug on a fridge freezer anyway? surely you want it on all the time...
Good question. Other than power monitoring, it could be useful to know if the monitored device is off (i.e., fuse gone / breaker tripped /etc. ).
If one can't contact the smart plug then it is worth investigating - especially if there is a freezer hanging off it.
My fridge freezer is in the garage as well, so if I was going to turn it off during a saving session, the Smart plug is handy. But I have not done this yet.
I also use Smart plugs where switching things on and off is difficult e.g the plug socket is hidden behind a sideboard. Lights coming on and off when your on holiday? Bedroom TV to go off every day at say midnight. This enables me to go to bed watch TV, the TV goes to standby, then the Smart Plug turns the TV mains off.
What are the options for switching the smart plugs - can you, for example, get the app to switch one on when your battery is full and you're exporting your energy to the grid?
rich_f What are the options for switching the smart plugs - can you, for example, get the app to switch one on when your battery is full and you're exporting your energy to the grid?
I too would love an answer to this question - it was once a promised "coming soon" update for the smart plugs - did it come yet? That is the USP for me for these smart plugs, to turn them on when there is excess energy (like one connected to a plug-in heater)
Yeah, I remember that being a feature that hasn't arrived yet, was part of the reason of buying the branded ones.
I live in hope that I can turn the dehumidifier on in a smart way one day!
Where’s the cheapest place to get them?
Any one try to disassembly them and integrate them into socket? What communication protocol they use? WIFI or Zigbee?
RichardNewbold
I've got a few non Givenergy smart plugs around the house. I originally used them for energy monitoring. I have one on our Dehumidifier but although it will switch it off, when it switches on the dehumidifier just beeps. This is because the dehumidifier has touch controls behind a membrane. Just something to be aware of, we got our dehumidifier from ScrewFix.
Hook got mine from eBay
Tenkaykev my dehumidifier explicitly says you should turn it off via the panel, rather than at the wall. Sometimes it may want to run on a little before stopping the fans.
treborUK thanks. Ordered one. My daughter has a 1.5kw electric radiator she keeps leaving on.
I had no success adding my two GE smartplugs. I went through the process umpteen times but kept timing out.
Out of curiosity I opened the " Smart Life App which I use to control my other smart plugs ( Gosund Brand ) and tried adding them there. They both connected first time and I was able to switch them on / off via the Smart Life app. Curious as to what is causing the GE app to fail.
Tenkaykev common issue is location services needs to be enabled or GE app doesn’t work when trying to add them
treborUK
Just checked and location services is set to " Always "