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CES 2016: iHome Announces HomeKit-Compatible SmartPlug With Power Monitoring and Remote Control

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iHome was one of the first companies to come out with a HomeKit-compatible product, debuting its iSP5 SmartPlug in the summer of 2015. At this year's Consumer Electronics Show, iHome is announcing the successor to the iSP5 SmartPlug, the iSP8 SmartPlug.

While the Wi-Fi-connected iSP5 simply turned a dumb appliance into a smart appliance and allowed it to be turned on and off with Siri, the iSP8 is a more advanced product that adds power consumption monitoring. In addition to functioning as a smart outlet like the original iSP5, the iSP8 SmartPlug will collect data on how much power an appliance is using, aggregating the information in the accompanying iHome Control app.

ihomesmartplug-800x448.jpg

The iSP8 also ships with a remote control that's able to control the SmartPlug without requiring access to an iPhone or iPad. The iSP8 SmartPlug will be available later in the year for $49.99.

Article Link: CES 2016: iHome Announces HomeKit-Compatible SmartPlug With Power Monitoring and Remote Control
 
Article Link
https://www.macrumors.com/2016/01/05/ihome-homekit-smartplug-power-monitoring/
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Only a single plug... Should've put two or three that are able to be controlled by HomeKit. Something like a Red, Green, or Blue indicator around them so you can identify them via the App.

At $50 per plug, this is probably the largest thing slowing HomeKit's growth.
 
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Chuck Kostalnick said:
Only a single plug... Should've put two or three that are able to be controlled by HomeKit. Something like a Red, Green, or Blue indicator around them so you can identify them via the App.

At $50 per plug, this is probably the largest thing slowing HomeKit's growth.
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Exactly. I had an iDevices Switch until this morning, worked great for Xmas lights but it being a one-trick pony I didn't have any use after that to justify keeping. CES 2015 Incipio had some more affordable HomeKit devices but turned out to be vaporware. When they get down to the $20-$30 range then I can see replacing throughout the house.
 
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Hmm, HomeKit could really do with logging and dashboards, a bit like the health app for HealthKit, so that information about your house like this could be logged centrally rather than spread across separate apps.
 
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PhoenixDown said:
At $50 per plug, I am likely spending more money on plugs than I would save by reviewing the energy used.
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Yes, but that's what it means to be a geek. We spend hours to get performance increases that can only be measured in nanoseconds and a fortune to quantify our expenditures.
 
I wish someone would list the uses that a remote-controlled outlet offers. I can understand if it reported power-outages to critical appliances like refrigerators, sump pumps or medical devices; otherwise, they seem pointless since attached appliances require more than just power to activate.
 
Defthand said:
I wish someone would list the uses that a remote-controlled outlet offers. I can understand if it reported power-outages to critical appliances like refrigerators, sump pumps or medical devices; otherwise, they seem pointless since attached appliances require more than just power to activate.
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Many things don't need more than just power to activate. Lights, fans, heaters are just a few off the top of my head. For example I could possibly use this to plug in the block heater for my truck. That way I could have it turn on the block heater at a specific time (assuming you can tell Siri to do that?) rather than leaving the 1000W block heater running all night. Right now I just use a simple timer to turn the block heater on each weekday morning. If the price on something like this got low enough it might actually make more sense for me to replace the timer, since I don't necessarily drive my truck to work every weekday, and I could easily tell Siri not to turn the block heater on the next morning (I assume?).
 
Defthand said:
I wish someone would list the uses that a remote-controlled outlet offers. I can understand if it reported power-outages to critical appliances like refrigerators, sump pumps or medical devices; otherwise, they seem pointless since attached appliances require more than just power to activate.
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I agree that outlets seem fairly useless, however, controlling lights and dimmers is a different story.

My dream is to have everything in my home that is electric connected to my hub so I can control it from my devices. For example, when I walk in the house, it would detect my phone and turn on the lights and turn up the heat. When I start a movie it would dim the lights to just the optimal level and when I pause it, the lights go back up.

But what good would it be to have my toaster plugged into a smart outlet? Only light fixtures that go on and off would make sense since AC is either on or off for most devices. A rheostat on an outlet would be a bad idea for almost all devices.
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Beerstalker said:
Many things don't need more than just power to activate. Lights, fans, heaters are just a few off the top of my head. For example I could possibly use this to plug in the block heater for my truck. That way I could have it turn on the block heater at a specific time (assuming you can tell Siri to do that?) rather than leaving the 1000W block heater running all night. Right now I just use a simple timer to turn the block heater on each weekday morning. If the price on something like this got low enough it might actually make more sense for me to replace the timer, since I don't necessarily drive my truck to work every weekday, and I could easily tell Siri not to turn the block heater on the next morning (I assume?).
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I agree that the limiting issue is really price. Turning things on and off from an app or with a timer only makes sense if the technology is affordable.
 
I have had 3 of these for a while.
Until the early Dec software update, they were not very reliable.

Hasn't glitched once since.

I have a security camera in my house that I use one to turn on/off.
The power for the camera is in a closet & I had been using a bt switch.

I have a yard light attached to my shop with all light switches far in back.
Until I got the ISP5 I had to feel my way or use a flashlight to get to switch if dark outside.
Now I turn on yard light anywhere I have internet.

I hope they keep adding features, one I would like is to set a geo-fence.
Would be nice to have my security cam turn on when I leave and off when I get home.

I paid $40 each including shipping
 
I have a couple of ISP5 switches - $29 each from Home Depot. As someone else said, they were only about 80% reliable until the last firmware update, now they are nice and stable. I used them for Christmas lights and it was easy to set scenes and schedules on my phone and say 'turn christmas tree on' with Siri on my watch. I also picked up the iDevices ($49 at Lowes) switch, which worked just as well but has energy monitoring - nice to know that I had 730 watts of lights burning for 8 hours a day.

That said, I wouldn't base my home automation and lighting around them. The biggest problem with this type of switch is that if your router goes down, or you don't have your phone on you, you can't turn on a light without crawling behind the couch/bed to hit the button on the switch. And while voice control is neat, calling out 'Hey Siri, turn on the bedside light' is pretty silly at 2am with your wife sleeping next to you. The ISP8's little remote may help with that.
 
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