Eve Announces New Matter Outlet, Light Switch and Blinds

[Makosuke]

In my area, for $10k I can get a natural gas generator that will power my entire house. No batteries, no Span panel, barely a flicker when the power goes out and the generator kicks in.

It's very relative--most people could get that, but on the other hand, if you have on average, say, one 12-hour power outage a year, you spent $10,000 on something you're literally going to use once a year. If the generator lasts 10 years, that's $85 an hour for the use you got from it.

A battery system might not give you quite as much backup--although it could, depending on size--but it will doing energy arbitrage 365 days a year to lower your electric bill, which depending on where you live, and especially if you also have solar panels, can be a substantial economic benefit.

In my region, for example, power in the middle of the day (when PV is generating) is dirt cheap, but power in the evening can cost 5 or more times that. With a battery, you collect power when it's cheap (whether you generated it yourself or just charge from the grid), then use it when it's expensive.

This may or may not offset the cost of the device over its life, but at least it's doing something for you rather than just sitting there taking up space. Having lived in an area with a lot of outages, and having owned a generator, I can also say that it's a lot easier to sleep with a battery than a generator running, and your neighbors hate you a lot less.

 

[Q-Dog]

In my area, for $10k I can get a natural gas generator that will power my entire house. No batteries, no Span panel, barely a flicker when the power goes out and the generator kicks in.

Still gotta pay for the gas to run it. I've had 4 power outages here that were at least 6 days long. That's gonna be a huge bill.

I spent about $7000 to build a battery backup to run critical loads. Added a few solar panels and as long as we have a couple hours of sun a day we have refrigeration, computer/network/phones, lights and enough capacity to run a small window A/C during the day. And no fuel costs. If the sun doesn't cooperate we can always drag out the old gasoline generator to top off the batteries.

But the system worked so well during our last outage we decided to get more solar and more batteries. We are gonna use the grid for our backup.

Back on topic. I love the Lutron stuff I have.

 

[ds2000]

This is true, but you're really just using it for monitoring in that case, not the remote control and automation features, which is not its main advertised use case. There are plenty of devices--smart and dumb--that will monitor power use passively, and plenty of good things to do with those, like the example you give.

No I have a motion sensor in the office that turns the plug on when I arrive in the morning, that then reconnects all the hue bulbs / lights that are running through it, my screens, docking base and chargers. Its all connected via Zigbee to home assistant. Once per quarter home assistant then reads the values and notifies with how much I have to charge back.

 

[BJMRamage]

I bought a 4-pk of Meross HK plugs a while back. I think I have used 2 so far.

I have a HPM on a piece of furniture that is snug on the wall. I’ve heard some folks use smart plugs to power cycle their HPM each night to keep their Apple TV as the Home Hub. If I used a power plug it would push out further from the wall and in the way of the furniture (meaning I had to pull that out further). Having a in-wall HK Plug means less distance so sticking OUT.

Another idea is a way to control plugs so when we are out and the kids are home they can use a device. If it was on a smart plug “wart” they could easily see that and plug into a new spot. But if the in-wall plug looks normal than they might not easily know to do that.

 

[Arsenikdote]

True, but on the other hand something that doesn't stick out of the wall can be useful, and at minimum it certainly looks cleaner--I have a couple of USB-port-included outlets, which are pleasingly tidy. The amount of work to replace it if it breaks is probably relative to how used to replacing outlets you are; it's not as easy as just plugging in a new one, but it's also not all that much harder for something that should last a decade.


This is a good use-case, and I kind of alluded to it with my comment that "I guess I need more desk lamps or something?" It's not that there aren't any good uses of smart plugs, just that there are a lot less than it feels like there should be, since most plugged-in things have no value in having that plug be automated.

Lighting products seem like by far the biggest one--on/off and don't mind being randomly unplugged to turn off--especially things (like LED strips) that couldn't also be served by putting a smart bulb in the same lamp (although I could imagine that having your choice of dumb lightbulb with a smart plug might be cheaper and have more options than a smart bulb in a dumb plug).

In my house personally, though, I literally have one plugged-in bedside lamp, everything else is a fixture. Obviously that's not true for everyone.

I think because most people's lights are light fixtures with regular screw in bulbs, that most of them are easiest to control via smart bulbs or smart switches. It is funny that really my only use case is variations on the same thing, which is lighting that I don't want to connect to a light switch (because the wiring would be too big of a pain) and I don't want on all the time (wire directly into a power run) so I use the smart outlets to control them.

The idea of "control cool things" like a coffee maker and stuff....in practicality just isn't something most people need or really even want 🤷🏻‍♂️

 

[Makosuke]

No I have a motion sensor in the office that turns the plug on when I arrive in the morning, that then reconnects all the hue bulbs / lights that are running through it, my screens, docking base and chargers. Its all connected via Zigbee to home assistant. Once per quarter home assistant then reads the values and notifies with how much I have to charge back.

Ahh, I stand corrected in that case. Motion detector isn't quite as "smart home" as a geofence or something, but that's certainly not just power measurement.

The idea of "control cool things" like a coffee maker and stuff....in practicality just isn't something most people need or really even want 🤷🏻‍♂️

On top of not really wanting it, another substantial issue with the "control cool things"/"make anything smart by plugging it into a smart plug" concept is that a lot of devices just aren't controlled that way.

The coffee maker is a perfect example: My coffee maker is quite dumb, but still requires you to push a button to start it brewing, so putting it on a smart plug would let me automate essentially nothing. If I wanted even the most basic of automation, I'd need to buy a new one that has a built-in timer, if not something fancy and internet connected.

Likewise every other device other than a lamp that I might want to automate--if it doesn't automatically start doing whatever I want it to do as soon as it's plugged in, a smart plug does nothing for it. I think the only thing I own that might be usable that was is a hot water pot that heats up on being plugged in, but it already has a timer built-in so I would get little out of adding more significant automation to it.

 

[Oberhorst]

Good start with the switches, especially in Europe where Thread solutions are still lacking.

I’m still missing double switches and dimmers that support Thread though, and the ability to use my own physical switches (like stylish metal buttons and knobs) on top of Eve’s electrics. Right now, you can only get and use the Eve switch as a bundle of switch + electrics unlike other vendors who sell the electrics separately.

 

[lie2me]

Ok... is it me or did it bring back memories of these?! (at about the same price point)
Right down to the lights being in the same place as the old dials!

I used the X10 "Powerhouse" plug in controllers. Never bothered replacing wall outlets with X10 controlled outlets. It has been so long, I don't even remember how they were controlled with the remote control. I seem to recall they used the AC wires to route signals but I might be wrong.

 

[lie2me]

I don't think they have actually introduced the matter Eve Light Switch yet. It is using thread but they have yet updated its firmware to communicate using the matter protocol.
With the competition in this space, it is hard to say when this may come about.