Since my outdoor version of this didn’t get the acceptance I had hoped for . Let’s try an indoor version of a power strip that has Surge Protection, Network, Fast Charging USB ports, etc.
I was about to suggest something similar, then I did a search and see that someone already did. (I can’t find any other threads where this is discussed, but feel free to point me there if there are.)
There are very few Z-Wave power strips on the market right now (or apparently ever). The Aeon DSC11 appears to have been discontinued, or is at least hard to find in the U.S., leaving the Zooz ZEN20 as the only one I’m aware of. Zigbee power strips are even harder to find — the only one I can find is a Tuya-looking strip (presumably similar hardware) that just got listed on Amazon and has no reviews. Inovelli could really innovate here by doing a Zigbee version first. But either protocol would be a welcome addition to the smart home market. Most power strips appear to be Wi-Fi and locked into specific cloud-based ecosystems or require unofficial hacks like Tasmota to work locally (something that is starting to fail as many of the Tuya devices move away from ESP82xx chips). Many also appear sketchy, not claiming UL or ETL listing.
If I had a wishlist for it:
- The Zooz is great, but the plugs are all close together, making it hard to fit wall-wart-style adapters, so: at least some widely spaced outlets
- Flat plug so it’s easy to fit in receptacles near furniture
- Individually controllable outlets (if that wasn’t clear)
- Controllable USB charging ports (most don’t seem to support this, so it would be another differentiating feature if it did)
- I don’t care for this (and actually prefer not to have it in most cases, so ability to disable would be good), but I’m guessing many people would want power monitoring
- Zigbee? (mentioning again
)
- Typical regulatory and safety certifications, which I know goes without saying here, but you’ll be surprised what’s out there…
I’d like to refresh this thread if I may. It looks like it’s been a while…
For the mentioned wish list, I agree with all of it, I use the energy monitoring part exclusively to keep energy hungry devices powered off when I can. I have a dozen or so of the Kasa HS300 around my home and they clog a Wi-Fi network really fast. Also, they have huge delays, get rate-limited on Homey Pro and can’t be relied upon with a security Flow as sometimes they don’t respond. Not to mention privacy is a big question as well.
- Individual control of 2 fast-charging USB-C & 2 USB-A ports
- The HS300 form factor is good, at least 6 wide outlets
- Manual on/off control of each outlet with associated LED
- Surge suppression
- Power switch and surge reset button
There are still no good alternates with the Zen20 from Zooz almost $100. If it could be around $40 I’d buy a couple dozen right away.
My kludge work around is to buy a 12 widely spaced outlet strip and add 6 Zigbee energy monitoring plugs from Thirdreality and can get big and clunky.
Please say this project can be started.
In the 4+ years since I wrote that post, I’d still probably prefer a Zigbee model over Z-Wave, but Matter (with any underlying phyiscal layer, so basically Thread or Wi-Fi from a practical perspective) would also be welcome now. I have hope that Tapo or Kasa or one of those lines will release something — there are already Wi-Fi ones where the API has been reverse engineered or is HomeKit-compatible and can be used in a roundabout way with some automations or an unofficial controller — but I definitely think Inovelli could do a good job here.
In the meantime, you must be looking at Amazon. The ZEN20 — and most products, really — are less from their official store.