homeassistant

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Home Assistant is open source home automation that puts local control and privacy first. Powered by a worldwide community of tinkerers and DIY enthusiasts. Perfect to run on a Raspberry Pi or a local server. Available for free at home-assistant.io

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Your recommendation for smart plug (sh.itjust.works)

submitted 3 weeks ago by Bronzie@sh.itjust.works to c/homeassistant@lemmy.world

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I'm tinkering with our ventilation over-pressure function in combination with an inline fan I run when 3D printing or soldering, to get the fumes and particulates out while simultaneously not creating a massive vacuum inside. The plan is to control it with MQTT from HA to a PLC that controls the ventilation via RS-485.

Therefore I'm looking for a simple but clean looking smart plug that I can integrate with HA to let me know when the fan is on (pulling power, actual wattage is irrelevant) to automatically enable this function.

I know Sonoff makes some, but I always prefer personal advice over random search results.
Preferably Zigbee or WiFi (offline) as I don't have any Matter/Z-wave hub/dongle. Compact design and black would be nice, but not a must. Stability and ease of setup matters more than added functionality.

Does anyone have any personal experience to share?
I'm grateful if you do. Thanks!

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[–] shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip 3 points 3 weeks ago (7 children)

I'm using the third reality plug and it works really well although they don't recommend using it with motor things such as air conditioners etc because of the startup. They recommended I find a contactor plug instead of a relay plug in order to run air conditioners and stuff like that with it.

[–] Zeoic@lemmy.world 2 points 2 weeks ago (4 children)

Huh, hadnt heard about that. I have been using my third reality energy monitoring smart plugs on two Air Conditioners for over two years lol

[–] shortwavesurfer@lemmy.zip 2 points 2 weeks ago (3 children)

Oh really? What is the wattage on your air conditioners? I am running one of the third reality plugs on my air conditioner that takes 550 watts and that's what I emailed them about and they recommended me to not use it. So I'm wondering if you're using more powerful air conditioners than that.

According to them, it's not the operating wattage that's the problem. It's that when the motor starts up initially, it can pull something like two or three thousand watts all at once for a very brief amount of time and then it settles down. I'm in the United States, so my plug is capable of 15 amps at 120 volts, which is 1,800 watts. They said those brief spikes at the start could weld the contacts together in the relay and cause it not to be able to turn off again.

But if you've been using it for two years, and especially if you've been using it for two years on air conditioners that are above 550 watts, that would make me less concerned.

[–] sprite0@sh.itjust.works 2 points 2 weeks ago

they sell 'soft start' hardware to mitigate the initial load but they ain't cheap

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