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:

1. Connect the smart-plug to your WiFi.
2. Plug your bike / laptop / space heater into the smart-plug.
3. 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?

You can join the waitlist for more information.

At least, that's what I thought. A few days ago my little cybernetic helper suddenly started speaking!

Not exactly a Shakespearean soliloquy, but a hell of a lot better than trying to decipher BIOS beep codes.

All of my electronics beep at me. My dishwasher screams a piercing tone to let me know it has completed a wash cycle. My kettle squarks mournfully whenever it is boiled. The fridge howls in protest when it has been left open too long. My microwave sings the song of its people to let me know dinner is ready. And they all do it with a series of tuneless beeps. It is maddening.

Which brings me on to Star Wars.

Why does the character of Artoo-Detoo only speak in beeps?

Here's how we're introduced to him⁰ in the original script:

                THREEPIO
        We're doomed!

The little R2 unit makes a series of electronic sounds that 
only another robot could understand.

                THREEPIO
        There'll be no escape for the Princess 
        this time.

Artoo continues making beeping sounds

There are a few possibilities. Firstly, perhaps his hardware doesn't have a speaker which supports human speech?

Artoo demonstrably has a speaker which is capable of producing a wide range of sounds. So perhaps he isn't capable of complex symbolic thought?

This exchange from Empire Strikes Back proves otherwise.

INT.  LUKE'S X-WING - COCKPIT

Luke, looking thoughtful, suddenly makes a decision.  He flips several 
switches.  The stars shift as he takes his fighter into a steep turn.  
The X-wing banks sharply and flies away in a new direction.

The monitor screen on Luke's control panel prints out a question from 
the concerned Artoo.

                LUKE
            (into comlink)
        There's nothing wrong, Artoo.
        I'm just setting a new course.

Artoo beeps once again.

                LUKE
            (into comlink)
        We're not going to regroup with 
        the others.

Artoo begins a protest, whistling an unbelieving, "What?!"

Luke reads Artoo's exclamation on his control panel.

It could be that Artoo can't speak the same language as the other humans. C-3PO boasts that he is fluent in over 6 million forms of communication¹ - so it is possible that Artoo can speak but just can't speak out language².

Speech synthesis is complicated but playback is simple. Artoo can play recordings. His memory could be stuffed full of useful phrases which he could blast out when necessary. So perhaps he only has limited memory and doesn't have the space for a load of MP3s?

Except, of course, his memory is big enough for "a complete technical readout" of the Death Star. That's got to be be be a chunky torrent, right?

The only reasonable conclusion we can come to is that R2-D2 is a slave³. Sentient organics apparently hold some deep-seated prejudices against robots and "their kind".

The Star Wars universe obviously has a version of this meme:

Which brings me back to my home appliances.

This isn't a technology problem. Back in the 1980s microcomputers had passible speech synthesis on crappy little speakers. Using modern codecs like Opus means that pre-recorded voices take up barely any disk space.

The problem is: do I want them to talk to me?

• When I'm upstairs, I can just about hear a shrill beep from the kitchen. Will I hear "washing cycle now completed" as clearly?
• Would a manufacturer bother to localise the voice so it is in my regional language or accent?
• Is hearing a repetitive voice more or less annoying than a series of beeps?
• If the appliance can't listen to my voice, does it give the impression that it is ordering me around?
• Do I feel a misplaced sense of obligation when inanimate objects act like living creatures?

It is clear that the technology exists. Cheap home appliances have more than enough processing power to play a snippet of audio through a tiny speaker. But perhaps modern humans find something uncanny about soulless boxes conversing with us as equals?

Well, X-Sense were listening! They've sent me the X-Sense Mini - it's a WiFi smoke alarm which integrates with the X-Sense app. That means that your phone receives a push notification when it is triggered.

It connects to your 2.4GHz WiFi network and sends push notifications to your phone via an app.

Why is this useful?

On first thought, it may be a bit silly to get a notification if you're not home. I mean, you won't be there to stop the fire, right?

But it is more complicated than that. If you receive a notification, you can get home, or ring a neighbour, or check if your partner is accidentally burning toast, or - if necessary - call the fire brigade.

You can also share the smoke alarm with someone else. For example, if you have an elderly relative who consents to remote monitoring of their environment.

Installation

Dead simple. It comes with some screws - so just shove it on a wall or ceiling somewhere.

It integrates well with the app. Press a button on the alarm, scan a QR code, then the app transmits your WiFi details via Bluetooth.

The whole setup process took about a minute.

Positives

It's a small, fairly neutral looking alarm. It isn't as big as the Nest, nor does it take as many batteries! It's also pretty loud, you should be able to hear the alarm in an average sized house.

If the device ever falls offline, it can send you a notification when it is back online.

You can fine-tune the notifications - so you can choose not to get pinged whenever it is tested, for example.

And, finally, the notifications come in pretty quickly.

Downsides

There are a few things that you need to be aware of.

Firstly, this is only a smoke alarm. It won't detect carbon monoxide - so you'll need a different alarm for that.

Secondly, it is WiFi only. Despite X-Sense having a hub which uses the low-power LoRaWAN standard, this thing only connects via 2.4GHz WiFi. So your hub is redundant in this situation. The battery is likely to last for about a year. I suspect it could last a lot longer if it used a lower-power radio protocol.

Thirdly, there is no API. So it may be hard to integrate with your homebrew home automation kit.

Finally, it only comes with a screw-mounting. You get a few screws and rawlplugs, but it would have been nice to have some double-sided stickers for mounting.

Final Verdict

The XS03-WX is a cheaper alternative to the Nest and other expensive alarms. It lacks CO detection, and I'd like to see better integration into the hub - but, for the price, I can't complain too much.

In the UK we have a competitive electricity market. Only one set of wires comes to your house, but you can buy your electricity from a number of providers. Some only offer organic, corn-fed, Wind Farm power - others promise price stability - another gives you a discount at their electric car chargers - one gives you loyalty points at a supermarket.

We increasingly have smart meters. Second-by-second they measure our energy consumption and report it back to our power suppliers.

Domestic appliances are increasingly coming with Internet connectivity. We may laugh at the "Internet of Shit" - but soon every device we own will come with an app. We will control them from our phones, and they will report back their usage to their manufacturer.

Let's mash these ideas up.

According to the Energy Savings Trusts' report "Powering The Nation" a typical fridge/freezer uses 427kWh per year.

At an average price of 15p/kWh that's an annual running cost of £64.

Suppose your fridge manufacturer buys electricity in bulk at wholesale prices. The current wholesale price per MWh is £40. That's 4p/kWh. Or about £20 to run a fridge for a year.

Would you buy a fridge which costs £100 more but comes with 5 years worth of free energy?

You register your fridge online. It *wavy hand technobabble* talks to your smart meter and tells it how much electricity it has used that day, the sum is deducted from your bill.

Perhaps it does clever things like works out when the spot price for electricity is low and then cools down. Or it keeps your food a little bit warmer when energy prices are high.

Or perhaps it could *mumble mumble* blockchain *something something* cloud computing?

Is this the future? I think so.

I've been reviewing WiFi connected plug sockets which measure how much power an appliance consumes. They cost about $10 per unit at retail pricing. Soon it will be normal to receive an electricity bill which shows you just how much your Playstation 5 costs to run.

Your typical bill will tell you how much energy each of your appliances use. At which point it will become obvious that replacing your old TV with something newer will save you money in the long run.

Tesla gives customers £50 worth of "free" electricity with their cars - but that's only at their branded charging stations.

In the future, a new electric car will come with 10,000 miles worth of "free" electricity when you charge at home. You won't notice an extra £300 on the price of a new vehicle, and the manufacturer can securitise their wholesale energy purchases.

Your appliance talks to your smart meter which talks to your energy provider. With a little bit of thought, this could change how we buy energy consuming products.

I'm a long term fan of QR codes. I know some people don't like the idea of augmenting reality with specific tags for computer vision - but I do. Some people prefer RFID/NFC. Others still prefer dedicated augmented video apps.

As I've written many times before, QR codes have several substantial advantages over alternate technologies.

• QR is a free and open standard.
• Compatible with every phone with a camera.
• No need to build or use a dedicated app.
• Free to generate.

Today, in the canteen, I think I have found the quintessential example of just how radical the open simplicity of QR codes is.

Tiny sachets of salt an pepper. Created in their millions. Given away for free the world over. Each stamped with a unique ID which can be recognised easily by a computer.

For scale, this is how small they are.

Now, I'll be the first to admit that a website about salt is not the most riveting thing in the world. But that's exactly the point! The costs associated with setting this up are close to zero. Amortized over every sachet it's probably less than the cost of a grain of salt.

There's no opportunity cost lost - what else could you stick on the side of a packet that small?

I like the fact that I can instantly see nutritional information and can certainly see it being more useful on larger items. But, again, that's the point. QR codes are free - so you might as well stick them on everything.

It's this dual freedom - free to generate and free to print - which makes QR codes ubiquitous.

The main problem with NFC (aside from lack of readers, inability for a user to tell a tag is present, proximity needed, etc) is cost. Even bought in bulk, those little RFID chips have a price. Buying 20,000 of them to stick on salt packets is an extravagance an unlikely to see any ROI to offset the cost of buying the chips and changing the manufacturing process to incorporate them. Not to mention that the chips can't be recycled easily.

QR Codes? Black ink. If you're already printing onto a surface, QR codes don't require any retooling or any equipment purchases.

I know that in our modern world we often strive for technical excellence, innovation, and quality. However, where there are two relatively compatible technologies, it is usually the cheaper technology which wins.

In many of the more relaxed civilizations on the Outer Eastern Rim of the Galaxy, the Hitchhiker's Guide has already supplanted the great Encyclopaedia Galactica as the standard repository of all knowledge and wisdom, for though it has many omissions and contains much that is apocryphal, or at least wildly inaccurate, it scores over the older, more pedestrian work in two important respects. First, it is slightly cheaper; and second, it has the words "DON'T PANIC" inscribed in large friendly letters on its cover. —Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

The Internet of Things will be powered - in part - by QR codes. Try not to get too upset about it.