Zigbee Wall Outlet | Project Jambry

Thus making the air gap somewhat redundant… so it’s not the worst that you can’t fit it in.

The air gap cuts power to the whole outlet, allowing things like resetting it if something freezes up etc. and saving a trip to the breaker. I wouldn’t call it redundant as you would never use it to switch the connected loads.

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I would like to grovel for 20A capability. Pleeeeease. Newer homes (at least where I live) are all wired for 20A these days and it feelsbadman to have to choose between smart features and modern building standards. I suspect I’m in a small group here… But I’d pay 50% more for 33% more current if that moved the needle. That said, if it’s a physical limitation, I understand that you can’t do magic :slight_smile:

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Most 20A wired circuits have 15A receptacles on them (unless they have a single 20A receptacle or you have a need for 20A receptacles). This receptacle would not change that.

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For UL certification (which I believe is the plan for these?), 15A receptacles must have 20A passthrough, so no issue putting it on a 20A circuit (minus the sole-receptacle-on-the-circuit case rohan mentions above).

Unless you mean you actually have an appliance with a 20A t-slot plug, in which case I’d be curious to know what that is (or at least why it would need to be on a smart plug).

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I have some 20A dumb power strips with the 5-20P plug (t-slot plug). On one, I plug my 2 gaming PCs and their peripherals (including a beefy sound system for one of them). It’d be nice to be able to monitor the power output of them (though I guess maybe I should really be looking into a smart power strip for more granular stats?) and automatically turn off that power strip when we aren’t home / when gaming computers turn off (again, maybe I should be looking for a smart power strip). I also use one in my workshop where I have several high-current tools plugged in. On that one, I can’t run all of the tools at once (obviously) without blowing the breaker, but I do have a 3d printer plugged into it and it would be nice to be able to turn on / off it’s power automatically / remotely.

Bad part is that my house’s receptacles were not thought out well, so I don’t really have the option to spread out my plugs to multiple receptacles which is why I have these 20A power strips

My house and most of the houses I viewed before buying my house (all new houses) all have 5-20R receptacles (which accept both 15A 5-15P and 20A 5-20P plugs). They look like the picture

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But there’s no issue with replacing those with a 15R receptacle as long as you don’t need to plug in a 20A load into it. Code allows for that.

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I’m fine with the USB port not being able to be remotely turned on/off (bummer, but fine).

I AM, however, holding out hope that the UBS port can get closer to that 60/65W territory that a lot of laptops prefer (at least 45W)

Most houses, even new ones, mine was built in 2019, the NEC allows to put 15a recepticles on a 20a circuit (i.e. kitchen, bathrooms, outdoors, etc where 20a circuits are required per NEC). I’ve never seen anyone put 20a outlets on a 20a circuit (because they all want to make as much money as possible and dont want to spend the extra 75 cents an outlet to put in).

but yes, unless you use the 20a kickout prong, you are just fine swapping for the 15a. There is no code violations or anything. You can tell when you pull an outlet out if its going to be a 15a or 20a circuit as the guage wire is a give away. if its 14 (white jacket) then its a 15a line. If its 12 (yellow jacket) then its likely a 20a line. NEC requires 20a in Kitchen (multiple circuits)/Bath/Outdoors/garage

Also @rohan

Sorry it’s been a few weeks since I checked in here.
Let me clarify what I said before because I think there has been a miscommunication.

I understand that you can put 15A receptacles on 20A circuits without any issue. I never said it would be a code problem or any other type of “problem” for that matter. I said that I wanted it and didn’t want to have to choose between modern standards (like 5-20R receptacles) and smart features.

I personally DO NEED the 20A capacity on a single duplex receptacle. This is not a theoretical worry for me; it’s a practical one. Please see my previous posts as a reference.

Nearly all of the new build houses I have seen over the last year have 5-20R receptacles so I don’t think it is unusual to have 20A receptacles these days which is why I thought it was worth asking for it. If it was more common for new builds to use 15A receptacles, then it could be valid to say I’m asking for something specialized and uncommon, but I do not believe that is the case. I think 5-20R receptacles are essentially ubiquitous for new builds (at least in my area).

I hear you. I have a couple of locations where I use 20A devices and need a smart receptacle (or a Smart Plug) as well. When I was looking ~1.5 years ago, I couldn’t find any products that were able to do it. It looks like the Swidget is capable of it now, so the technology must exist. I ended up installing a couple of these direct wire 40 amp smart switches from Jasco since they were the only thing I could find when I needed them. Certainly not ideal, and rather ugly looking, but they’re in my server room so I was willing to accept that.

Looking at your use case, it seems like swapping out your power strip for a smart one (like a PDU used in server racks) may be the better approach.

Just my two cents here, but based what I’m seeing in the thread, in regards to the LEDs, if you moved the LEDs to the bottom (not the bottom of the face, but the actual underside of the outlet) , and had a passthrough on the cover, you could have the switch act as a nightlight, and still be able to do led notifications (they would diffuse onto the wall and floor) this would also clean up the face as with buttons, LEDs, and a breaker switch it starts to get a little cluttered.

Doing this would kind lock the orientation, however, although installed sideways and upsidedown could still work the LEDs would just be shining sideways or up.

Late reply, but my experience has also been that 20A (5-20R) circuits are the de-facto choice for lower-wall outlets now. Countertop and bedside are where you might see 15A with USB still, but I could see those moving to 20A over the next couple years as well.

Not intending to troll or provoke, but I’m very curious what you’re basing this statement from… 20A receptacles require more expensive wiring (12 vs 14) and breakers, and the overall trend of how much power any given plug-in device uses is going down, not up.

For the living areas of a home, 20A at the receptacle is unecessary overkill in most cases.

But maybe this is what large-scale new-home builders are doing these days - I admit I have no idea. I’d just imagine that the breaker & 12-vs-14 wire cost differential alone would dissuade them, since they are so bottom-line conscious.

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I’ve got to agree with Hydro. Maybe it’s a regional thing or maybe a local code (AHJ) thing.

If you look at where 20A receptacle circuits are required, kitchen, bath, garage, etc, none of those are likely to be lower-wall outlets. Lower receptacles (i.e. 12"/16" off the floor) are going to be in hallways, bedrooms, stairwells, etc where 15A circuits are generally used.

If you get 20A receptacles during a build, consider that a plus. But the simple fact is that builders/electricians will minimize costs wherever possible. And since 15A receptacles are generally code-compliant to be placed on a 20A circuit (so long as there is more than one outlet), they’re just not generally going to provision more expensive receptacles, from a cost perspective. Of course, there are exceptions.

Within in the last year, I’ve seen a number of new builds by both cookie-cutter and custom builders in several states on the east coast, and I have not seen any general use of 20A receptacles.

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I’ve only got 15A receptacles and breakers in my home, and while “future proofing” with 20A plugs sounds great, I very likely wouldn’t open up walls to upgrade the wiring that would be required to install a 20A plug. And installing a 20A plug on wiring that’s too small could be a fire hazard.

I’d stick with 15A or at the very least say there would need to be 2 SKU’s

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I’m guessing this point has already been mentioned in this thread somewhere, but a properly certified 15A receptacle must allow 20A passthrough. It won’t have the 20A “T” slot of course, but it would be rated for placement in a (single-pole) 20A circuit. In that case, a minimum of 12# wire would be used everywhere w/in that circuit.

Inovelli has always pursued and adhered to such standards & certs, so I would expect this receptacle to follow all that too.

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Guessing this project has lost a bit of traction. This is currently the only one I personally am waiting for. Hopefully this one gets a chance sooner rather than later or never. I don’t need a USB included version myself. Discussions about that seem to have added complexity and halted the design requirements phase. It’s a nice feature though. Let’s show Project Jambry a little love :smile:

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Yes, this would be a nice product for me.