Smart adaptors, and what they do?

[ericmark]

A whole lot of domestic smart control of lighting and dont even mention immersion heaters seems unnecessary

Timers , current relays , photocell, pirs etc. do most control tasks reliably in a domestic setting

I have a controller for the immersion heater, and as you infer it would be better with a simple time switch, but that is because of the tariff I am on, where off-peak costs less than I get for solar.

As to photo/PIR cell, I do have a rechargeable torch at top of stairs with a photocell, and PIR which is mainly there in case of a power cut, but the work involved to get a socket high enough for it to be effective was really out of proportion to the advantage of having it. As to PIR outside, it was their failure which started my move to so called 'smart' devices, which allowed me to turn on outside lights when I wanted them, not squirrels and cats, as to why wind triggers a PIR never worked out, but it does, I must have hot trees.

So yes current relays and timers, the cheap method to get them, is plug in 'smart' sockets.

I do not consider voice control, remote control, current control, and timers makes anything 'smart' to me to make something 'smart' it needs to work something out. So a TRV which works out the time it needs to switch on to get the room to temperature at some specified time in the future could be seen as smart, but to just fit a timer on a TRV is not.

I used to program enough PLCs before I retired to realise what smart is. But however, I don't think teleoperation on its own is 'Smart' but I think one has to accept that is what many seem to call smart.

It all started for me, trying to look after my late mother, she was in a wheelchair so lived in the ground floor, and we lived in the upper floor. The problem was answering the door, including disabling the extruder alarm before answering it.

We tried timers to disable alarm when carers were due to visit, and a remote control to disable it, but then we would forget to turn it back on again. So a so-called smart socket combined both functions. The problem was only three time slots, but it did have IFTTT option which allowed us to get the fourth time slot.

When the socket went wrong, and turned itself into a flasher unit it was a pain to change it, so plug in adaptors seem a better option, and these can be moved around, so can select the one with the options required.

And this is the whole point of the thread, each make and model has different features. But you do not know what the features are until after you buy the adaptor.

So the zigbee work as a relay for other devices, but they need a hub, other makes don't need a hub, but even that, early versions of the Tapo/Kasa needed hubs, then latter they could use each other's hub, and then we got a version which did not need a hub, and they auto update as well, so not sure what point the requiring of a hub changed.

I look at zigbee, or the smartlife app which works the zigbee gear, and see four sockets, I know one is a Lidi Silvercrest but not looked at the others. However, all of them seem to have same options, except for the Drayton Wiser, also uses zigbee, but a different hub, which also shows watts being used. As to if this is down to the hub or the device I don't know.

I have found items which I thought needed their own app, have migrated to the smartlife app, why a battery should connect to an app to show how much power is still in it, I really don't know, but the 4 Ah has it, the 2 Ah does not.

I note the advert for "20A Tuya Smart Socket WiFi UK Plug 3pin Adaptor Home Alexa Voice Control With Energy Monitoring Timer Function Power Outlet Set" which are cheaper than I can by a simple timer for, and uses the smartlife app, so it seems you can monitor power with smartlife app.