Best Z-Wave receptacle with energy monitoring?

I use Aeotec SmartSwitch-6 modules to monitor my washer and dryer and send notifications when the cycles are finished.

I'd like to replace those with Z-Wave receptacles, to reduce outlet clutter, but they have to have energy monitoring on the controlled outlets. My only current Z-Wave receptacles, the GE 14288/Jasco ZW1002, don't do monitoring.

Looking around I see mentions of the Everspring LOM-15, GoControl WO15Z-1, and the Enerwave ZW15-RM (as well as some mentions of spamming the Indigo log with the latter). Can anyone suggest which of these is good, or another one I should consider?

The Enerwave ZW15-RM with the latest version of Indigo doesn't spam the log. I have several and they work fine.

JP

Can't offer any suggestions here but I'm intrigued by your use case. I can understand how the dryer finishing a cycle would be detected by a drop in consumption since its more or less a steady load. But what about washers where the load would rise and fall as the cycle progresses. How do you differentiate between when the device is allowing the clothes to soak vs the machine has finished the cycle?

I have Indigo note that the washer is on when the energy consumption goes over 100W, and then off when it was on and goes all the way down to 0 (ok, "less than 1W"). Even in the moments where my machine is pausing and soaking or whatever, the control electronics draw enough power - seems to hover around 4W - to distinguish "on, mid-cycle" from off.

[jay (support)]

I have a timer running that gets reset every time the usage goes over a threshold. If the timer expires then I know it's done. Trial and error to figure out what the timer value is though and what the threshold is. I *think* I just logged the usage value every time it changed and was able to figure it out from there.

OK, I picked up one of the Enerwave ZW15-RM receptacles, and it does seem to do the job.... but it is still pretty chatty. Indigo has a checkbox to keep the noise messages out of the log, but should I at all be concerned about Z-Wave traffic congestion (or Indigo processing time) if I have a few of these, each sending a message every second?

What messages is it sending every second?

I'd be turning that down, which ought to be a zwave parameter, either exposed in the UI or manually by Interfaces > Zwave > Configure ZWave Parameters

Peter

What messages is it sending every second?

I'd be turning that down, which ought to be a zwave parameter, either exposed in the UI or manually by Interfaces > Zwave > Configure ZWave Parameters

Peter

https://enerwaveautomation.com/wp-conte ... M-4.29.pdf claims that the sending intervals are in minutes, not seconds, unless your wattage is changing every second in which case it also sends one every time the wattage changes.

The (measured) wattage is changing a tiny bit every second - ranging from 0.132W to 0.147W.

From that manual it looks like I should be able to poke at some threshold values and keep it from being so noisy.... but I get errors trying to set that parameter.

It seems I have a ZW15RM-PLUS, not a ZW15-RM, and the instruction sheet for the ZW15RM-PLUS only mentions parameter 1., not 8, 9, 10, 11, or 12.

Any recent updates on recommended Z-Wave outlets that have energy monitoring? I've seen some positive comments on the Enbrighten 55256, which I believe used to be GE / Jasco. As a z-wave newbie, I was planning to add a few of these Outlets throughout my house in an attempt to establish a decent z-wave network - these outlets will be used for small space heaters in various rooms and so i wanted to try the energy usage tracking.

On the topic of energy usage tracking:
1) I've tried a few z-wave plug-ins vs. wired outlets to try out the energy usage. These seem to periodically push Z-wave info (energy usage) pretty regularly each minute. Is that considered normal?
2) Should I be careful about adding too many of outlets with energy usage - as it may saturate the z-wave network?

I have a few of the Enbrighten 55256. They don't report power usage.

JP

Ah oh bummer - thanks for that clarification. Thought I had read somewhere that it had the feature. You saved me some outlet wiring frustration ! I can stick with the plug-in models in that case.

On the topic of energy usage tracking:
1) I've tried a few z-wave plug-ins to try out the energy usage. These seem to periodically push Z-wave info (energy usage) pretty regularly each minute. Is that considered normal?
2) Should I be careful about adding too many of of these devices with energy usage - is there risk of saturating the z-wave network?

[matt (support)]

1) I've tried a few z-wave plug-ins to try out the energy usage. These seem to periodically push Z-wave info (energy usage) pretty regularly each minute. Is that considered normal?

Most modules will have parameters you can change to modify the frequency or sensitivity for power and/or energy reporting. If Indigo doesn't show UI in the device settings, then check the PDF manual for the module to see if it has any parameters you can modify. If it does, then you can use the Interfaces->Z-Wave->Modify Configuration Parameter... menu item to change them.

2) Should I be careful about adding too many of of these devices with energy usage - is there risk of saturating the z-wave network?

Yes, you do want to keep an eye on how "chatty" your modules are to avoid collisions and congestion on the network. You wouldn't want 100 module all reporting every 10 seconds, for example.

There are many plug-in style controls. I use several different brands. They come and go from Amazon. I have lots of Zooz models. Lately I am using one from Minoston … whoever that is. With the small form factor I would be nervous about a heavy heating load. Otherwise they work well and report energy and have the parameters Matt suggested to adjust frequency of reporting. I did have one issue. I set the parameters to not have frequent reporting. And suddenly my log was flooded with reports. It turned out that my load was extremely low and every time the device read the load as 0 W it would report and then it would read it as less than a watt and report again. Back and forth. Even though I had set the parameters to not report frequently. A bug in their software. My solution was I had to plug another small load in as well to keep the load high enough that it would never read zero. Works fine now. The odd things you learn when troubleshooting these systems sometimes is frustrating.

Minoston Z-Wave Plug with Energy Monitoring, Z-Wave Plus Mini Outlet Built-in Repeater Range Extender, Overcurrent Protection, Z-Wave Hub Required, Alexa and Google Assistant Compatible(MP21ZP) https://a.co/cX2LNkZ


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