Gadget Review: Windfall Energy Saving Plug (Beta)
The good folks at Windfall Energy have sent me one of their interesting new plugs to beta test.
OK, an Internet connected smart plug. What's so interesting about that?
Our Windfall Plug turns on at the optimal times in the middle of the night to charge and power your devices with green energy.
Ah! Now that is interesting.
The proposition is brilliantly simple:
- Connect the smart-plug to your WiFi.
- Plug your bike / laptop / space heater into the smart-plug.
- When electricity is cleanest, the smart-plug automatically switches on.
The first thing to get out of the way is, yes, you could build this yourself. If you're happy re-flashing firmware, mucking about with NodeRED, and integrating carbon intensity APIs with your HomeAssistant running on a Rasbperry Pi - then this isn't for you.
This is a plug-n-play(!) solution for people who don't want to have to manually update their software because of a DST change.
Beta
This is a beta product. It isn't yet available. Some of the things I'm reviewing will change. You can join the waitlist for more information.
Connecting
The same as every other IoT device. Connect to its local WiFi network from your phone. Tell it which network to connect to and a password. Done.
If you run into trouble, there's a handy help page.
Website
Not much too it at the moment - because it is in beta - but it lets you name the plug and control it.
Turning the plug on and off is a single click. Setting it to "Windfall Mode" turns on the magic. You can also fiddle about with a few settings.
The names and icons would be useful if you had a dozen of these. I like the fact that you can change how long the charging cycle is. 30 minutes might be enough for something low power, but something bigger may need longer.
One thing to note, you can control it by pressing a button on the unit or you can toggle its power from the website. If you manually turn it on or off you will need to manually toggle it back to Windfall mode using the website.
There's also a handy - if slightly busy - graph which shows you the upcoming carbon intensity of the UK grid.
You can also monitor the energy draw of devices connected to it. Handy to see just how much electricity and CO2 emissions a device is burning through.
That's it. For a beta product, there's a decent amount of functionality. There's nothing extraneous like Alexa integration. Ideally this is the sort of thing you configure once, and then leave behind a cupboard for years.
Is it worth it?
I think this is an extremely useful device with a few caveats.
Firstly, how much green energy are you going to use? Modern phones have pretty small batteries. Using this to charge your phone overnight is a false economy. Charging an eBike or similar is probably worthwhile. Anything with a decent-sized battery is a good candidate.
Secondly, will your devices work with it? Most things like air-conditioners or kettles don't turn on from the plug alone. Something like a space-heater is perfect for this sort of use - as soon as the switch is flicked, they start working.
Thirdly, what's the risk of only supplying power for a few hours overnight? I wouldn't recommend putting a chest-freezer on this (unless you like melted and then refrozen ice-cream). But for a device with a battery, it is probably fine.
Fourthly, it needs a stable WiFi connection. If its connection to the mothership stops, it loses Windfall mode. It can still be manually controlled - but it will need adequate signal on a reliable connection to be useful.
Finally, as with any Internet connected device, you introduce a small security risk. This doesn't need local network access, so it can sit quite happily on a guest network without spying on your other devices. But you do give up control to a 3rd party. If they got hacked, someone could turn off your plugs or rapidly power-cycle them. That may not be a significant issue, but one to bear in mind.
If you're happy with that (and I am) then I think this is simple way to take advantage of cheaper, greener electricity overnight. Devices like these use barely any electricity while in standby - so if you're on a dynamic pricing tariff, it won't cost you much to run.
Interested?
| Verdict |
|---|
@Edent I've got the same hardware, but standard Tasmota firmware. Use case is the same, it's in the garage with ebike, power tools chargers, garden tool chargers, set up for solar divert as well as dynamic tariffs.
I guess for mass market, plug and play, setting up for local microgeneration could be harder to accomplish.
| Reply to original comment on mastodon.online
@Edent oh that’s really neat. I don’t have a use for it at the moment but good to know stuff like this exists. Could be quite useful for something like an immersion heater like I had in my old flat.
| Reply to original comment on hachyderm.io
@Edent that's a nice idea.
I can see the mass-market appeal of a centralised service rather than expecting people to roll their own with ZigBee or Home Assistant or whatever.
As they promote it as a way to use greener and cheaper energy, I guess they'll have to integrate not only with the Carbon Intensity API, but also with one or more of the dynamically priced tariffs like Octopus Agile? Octopus are now the UK's biggest supplier so there's going to be a decent future user base there.
| Reply to original comment on mstdn.party
Merton says:
Does the WindFall Plug do this? Do the cheap electricity times change? Does the WindFall plug adjust itself if there are changes?
Interesting idea.
How "green" the cheap energy available during WindFall hours is not that straightforward.
Enjoy your posts.
@edent says:
The UK has a range of dynamic tariffs which respond to forecast costs every 30 minutes. They can change quite dynamically.
Merton. says:
Would seem to me that somebody, LIKE YOU, could write a little app that got this information from the internet and then controlled normal smartplugs via Google home or whatever. Of course, I do not know if Google home, etc. allow one to write apps that connect with/control them.
Just a thought.
@edent says:
As I say in the post, a hobby developer could write an app for generic plugs. But this isn't designed for that market.
More comments on Mastodon.