Still switchable? Man I wish there would be a pure power meter plug available, with no switching ability. I would plug them into a lot of things. I know you could measure the whole power usage of a line or your home but that requires the right equipment (power meter) or an electrician to install it
I have the need for power metering only too.
I disabled the switch button on the plug so that they cannot be turned off by mistake. And set it to power on after power outage. Had no problems for a long time with this setup.
Do updates switch the switch? I have Homematic IP plugs. They do work but had one update that switched my PC off but besides that, pretty reliable but expensive af. I don’t want to take a chance with important devices. Sure I don’t need to update the plugs but I have an urge to install updates.
You can get meters that clamp over the wire, no electrician required.
https://www.smarthomeperfected.com/best-smart-home-energy-monitor/
I’m kinda stupid. I’ve seen these but they always show pictures within the distribution box. Here only certified electricians are allowed to open them. But I totally didn’t saw the option to just clamp it on a wire outside the box. I even asked Bing AI for help, because not everyone must sell on Amazon and Google Search just spits out the affiliate link sites, that suggests always the same popular options. 90% of the time switchable plugs.
If you want the whole house, you’ll need to crack the box to get at the phase split as it comes in.
If you want to track individual circuits, you should be able to do it outside the box. It will work with single phase at least,but not sure about dual-phase; but those are usually reserved for heavy appliances like stoves and dryers.
Why not just not use the switch function? You can even “disable” the switch in Home Assistant so you can’t accidentally turn it off, and most of these sorts of switches have a setting for default (on power restoration after power loss) of on or off.
I’m not the person who you’re responding to, but at least in my case I am just not comfortable with having the ability to switch, since I would like to connect devices which could be seriously damaged if the switch toggled for any reason. I have modified a couple of switchable power monitoring plugs already, but I would rather pay slightly less and not have a hassle.
