Smappee is the gadget that allows you to instantly know the consumption of each household appliance from your mobile. So when Podo offered to try it – it is available for your customers – I could not resist, and after a month messing with the gadget, I bring my impressions.
For those who do not know, Smappee is a gadget that promises not only to measure our instantaneous electricity consumption, but also to distinguish which appliances are producing it. This can be really useful in improving our energy use and, therefore, helping us to reduce the electric bill. Let’s see if he does what he promised.
Start up of Smappee
Installing Smappee at home is relatively straightforward if we have the slightest knowledge of electricity. The only slightly delicate step involves placing a kind of clip on the phase cable of our electrical panel (where the differential switches are also called “leads” or “fuses”).
This clip (marked in green in the photo) is connected by cable to the device in question (the white capsule that emits a green light), and this in turn connects to our WiFi, to send the data it collects to our account, Which we can access from our computer, mobile or tablet, even remotely.
As you can see, the installation is not as clean as one would like. There are two cables involved (the sensor and the power supply) and in the electrical panels there is usually not much space left. But maybe the really cumbersome thing is to find a plug near the electrical panel (which are usually high) so that it looks nice and we do not have the house entrance with hanging wires. That’s where you even need some more knowledge or the help of an electrician to put a plug next to the box.
Moreover, once installed, the device is configured practically alone and the whole process is fast, simple and intuitive, being able to do everything comfortably from the sofa with the mobile or tablet.
Early hours with Smappee
The early hours with Smappee are a little boring. At the beginning, we only have information about our instantaneous consumption and our phantom consumption (and, if we had a photovoltaic installation, what this brings).
This is because Smappee needs time to go on detecting different appliances, something it does automatically through its consumption and the “electrical footprint” they produce when they turn on and off. Thus, as the days pass, we will see that we are recognizing new devices, and soon we will have the most important ones identified.
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At this point, it would be necessary to make a small clarification. And is that although Smappee is detecting new devices, it is not that the “recognize”. In other words, you do not get “I already have your washing machine controlled”, but it shows a new device without naming that you yourself must label based on the data that gives you about its power and the hours in which you have used it.
To facilitate this task, the application includes several very useful functions, such as the possibility of sending you a notification when a device in question is lit, practical to know what is or to have it “watched”, such as the TV or children’s console.
It also has a manual identification system – basically, you have to turn the appliance on and off as directed by the application – ideal for adding those devices that resist detection.
Smappee, one month later
After a month of use is when Smappee starts to be really useful. The most interesting is undoubtedly the visual summary of all your consumption for days (and hours, if you want), which also includes a breakdown of what each appliance spends.
This count is more useful as more appliances are identified, something that has improved significantly since the last update of the system. Even so, there is a lot of unassigned consumption, since it is hard for you to recognize some appliances (such as air conditioning or washing machine) and does not always detect when some are turned on (such as television or induction).
But in spite of not being perfect, it is still very useful to be able to detect at a glance where your “opportunities for improvement” are how much is the consumption of phantom or in which days you have spent more.
Given its price, 235 dollars in Amazon in a pack that includes a plug that we can remotely control, I would not say that Smappee is an essential device in the home. But if you like to control your electricity consumption and improve the way you use energy, I cannot think of a simpler and more intuitive way of doing it.
The tests were carried out on a computer with components provided by ASUS. The processor has been assigned for testing by Podo. You can consult our policy of relations with companies.
