Tapo P110

InvertedVee

My first day playing with my Tapo P110 plugs (£35 for 4). Very interesting to see how my dishwasher uses the 1.05kWh that it consumes in ECO mode.


Almost all of the consumption occurs in two brief heating periods. The heating element is run for 7 minutes at the start of the wash cycle and for 15 minutes at the start of the drying cycle. I imagine that the washing machine and tumble dryer will show something similar and I'll try them next.

BooJewels

The washing machine does show something similar - this was mine yesterday on a 30°C quick wash - I've stopped doing quick washes for laundry, this was a descaling run I did.  I've actually found that a full length wash uses very little extra power over a quick wash, but you get an extra 30+ minutes of actual washing - so I've gone from a quick 40°C wash to a long 30°C wash as routine now - it's saving me around 180Wh per load without compromising cleaning - if anything, I think it's an improvement.

There's the one big peak for the water heating - the smaller peaks are spinning sessions.  I was surprised when I first put the P110 on the washing machine that whilst most of the energy was in the water heating, which was to be expected - how little energy it uses to just turn and splosh the washing, rinse etc etc.  I average around 0.5kWh per normal load and it costs me on average about a pound a month for laundry - much less than I was expecting.  Because I live on my own, I often do small batches by hand and only spin them in the machine too - and those costs are even lower - the spins average under 30Wh each.

What was a surprise yesterday was an experiment I did.  I decided it was time to do some machine maintenance, so did the decaling load as shown, but then ran a hot wash with soda crystals in to rid it of soap scum etc.  I'd read other threads where people were saving machine energy by part filling the machine with hot water from other sources - or into the detergent drawer when it was filling etc.  I just didn't think it would be worth the effort and potential for mess for me, as my machine is in a narrow room.  But as I wanted to run the machine at 90°C and there wasn't any laundry in it, decided to risk it.  I filled the drum with 2 boiled kettles and a large jug of hot tap water, as I'd just run it hot for something else.

That 90°C cycle only used 0.245kWh - there was a brief heating spike after 16 minutes when it must have dropped temperature and gave it a quick boost, but it seemed to run normally otherwise.  Quite a lot less than the 1.844kWh the previous 90°C cycle my visiting sister ran last month.  Obviously boiling the kettle twice will have used 300-400Wh but still a significant saving.  I might try a couple of jugs of hot water before my next normal wash and see what that does.

victor2

Some very interesting "studies" here! My P110 was controlling the Christmas Tree lights (LED and only 2W when running) over the holiday period so is free again now. Not sure what to do with it next.

Mstty

victor2 said:

Some very interesting "studies" here! My P110 was controlling the Christmas Tree lights (LED and only 2W when running) over the holiday period so is free again now. Not sure what to do with it next.

I have three, one on the Tumbledryer for a year, one on the air to air heat pump heater for a year and the floating device taken off the Christmas Tree.

Also used as smart plugs so always handy.

badger09

@BooJewels
Thats interesting stuff. My washing machine is in the utility room, so unless I move kettle from the kitchen I’d risk carrying very hot water through a poorly designed ‘kissing gate’ type arrangement of doors😏. 

However, as it’s nearer the boiler, I might try running off some hot water in utility & pouring it into the machine. 

I’ve also had my 2nd Tapo timing & monitoring the Christmas tree lights. Total cost was £2.22. 

I haven’t decided what’s next to be monitored. Possibly the lamp which makes the hall look warm & welcoming versus the dismal nightlight we’re using simply to avoid bumbling about in the pitch darkness😂

EssexHebridean

I’ve got 4 in use now. One permanently controls the towel rail for the bathroom. The second is on the socket we use for plugging the Shark & mini vacuum chargers in to. No 3 is our “floating” device and currently is in the dehumidifier which is in use a fair bit at the moment. The fourth has been on our second freezer for the past couple of weeks where it’s given us the very gratifying information that the freezer runs at under 0.7kWh daily. 

I have a sneaky feeling they are slightly addictive though as I could easily find uses for several more, and suspect that when we move later in the year they’re going to be invaluable for getting to grips with going from a flat to a house.

BooJewels

badger09 said:

@BooJewels
Thats interesting stuff. My washing machine is in the utility room, so unless I move kettle from the kitchen I’d risk carrying very hot water through a poorly designed ‘kissing gate’ type arrangement of doors😏. 

However, as it’s nearer the boiler, I might try running off some hot water in utility & pouring it into the machine. 

I must admit I was a bit sceptical that it would help, but I've seen it posted about several times, so thought it worth an experiment, when it didn't matter - I was surprised that it actually worked - and how well.  I don't think I'd tinker like that if I'd got a new washing machine, but mine is long past its manufacturers life expectancy and a long way out of warranty and I'm contemplating a new machine anyway.

I'm the opposite - my kettle is above the washing machine in the utility and I have to carry it to the kitchen when I need it - purely because there aren't anything like enough plugs in the kitchen.  I probably won't use the kettle for it again, it was only because I was doing a very hot wash to clean the machine - for my usual 30°C loads, a couple of big jugs from the hot tap might be worth trying.

If you have any Tapo P100s as smart plugs - they work quite well for monitoring static devices like lamps - as they're a more constant load - so if you know the wattage of the bulb, the P100 will tell you how long they've been on for (run time found in the same way as the P110 energy data), so you can work out their cost.  I have about 10 x P100s in regular use as well as the P110s, along with some smart bulbs now too.  I've found being able to control my own devices works really well for me on my own, but proved a bit problematic over Christmas when I had family staying - not quite as convenient then.

For example, just using the P100 - without energy monitoring - I can easily work out that my 62 Watt electric blanket has used 0.459kWh and will cost me 16p for the last week (worth every penny) - one of my lounge lights which are on from sunset to 23:30 was on for 46.3 hours in the last week and with a 3.2 watt bulb will cost me 0.148kWh / 5p for the week (already reducing a smidge every day as the days get longer) and my outside light at 5.5 watts will have cost less than 3p for the week (would have only been a penny if I hadn't gone out for the day and left it on when I was testing it worked from outside - but balanced by the other one inside that I'd switched off instead  ).

Qyburn

BooJewels said:

 P100 will tell you how long they've been on for (run time found in the same way as the P110 energy data)

Is that definitely the device run time, measured by the P100 detecting power draw, or is it the time that the P100 was On?

BooJewels

Qyburn said:

BooJewels said:

 P100 will tell you how long they've been on for (run time found in the same way as the P110 energy data)

Is that definitely the device run time, measured by the P100 detecting power draw, or is it the time that the P100 was On?

Definitely the run time where the device was drawing power - I did a couple of plausibility calcs as I was posting to ensure the numbers were right.  As quoted above, my lounge lamp (one of several) comes on at sunset and off at 23:30 - at the moment that's around 16:00 to 23:30 and it is showing as 46.3 hours for the past 7 days - that's 6.6 hours per day average - it's a lamp that I occasionally put off with the app if I'm not going to be in that room.  It currently shows 1.6 hours for today - I noted it was due to come on at 16:06 today.  If it were the time the P100 was plugged in, it would surely perpetually show 168 hours for the last week, as it's not been touched since I installed them last summer. 

My front door light is now showing 0.0 hours for the last 7 days as I've not been outside after dark, so not needed to even put it on - the 15.3 hours I posted earlier have now slipped into the past 30 days as it has seemingly passed the 7 days anniversary since I looked earlier - it was Wednesday 28th December when I left it on all day.

tux900

BooJewels said:

Qyburn said:

BooJewels said:

 P100 will tell you how long they've been on for (run time found in the same way as the P110 energy data)

Is that definitely the device run time, measured by the P100 detecting power draw, or is it the time that the P100 was On?

Definitely the run time where the device was drawing power 

No, it's the time the Tapo relay is on. In the case of a lamp that is of course the same as the time the load draws power, but in the case of an intermittent load like a washing machine, toaster, kettle, thermostatically controlled heater etc it will be different.