Eve Energy 2 Pack - Smart Plug & Power Meter with Built-in Schedules, Switch a Connected lamp or Device on & Off, Voice Control, no Bridge, Bluetooth Low Energy, Apple HomeKit, Bluetooth, Thread

I purchased 4. 1 refuses to connect to HomeKit and 1 emits a high pitched noise when not turned on pretty disappointing.

I like it for hourly power consumption. When I was starting seedlings. App is harder to navigate and scheduling is painful

TL/DR: Do they work? Most of the time. Are they easy to program? Sort of. Do I recommend? Yes, with the reservations listed below. The product is sleek and appears to be solidly made. I appreciate the green lighted button on the front that you can use bypass the app when (not if) you need to. The size and shape is also great; big enough to securely hold the plug, but not so big that it gets in the way of using the other outlet. If there was some way to make the plug with the holes on the side, it would be easier to use in tight places like behind furniture. To use it behind a side desk table, I had to cut a 6 x10 inch hole in the back of it. A side plug hole would be much more flexible (and would have saved me from hacking-up a piece of furniture). There are a couple of other things they could have done better. One is placement of the QR code. After plugging it into power, my phone’s camera couldn’t see the code, which was on the other side of the plug. It’s often dark behind furniture and the code is printed in a very light gray color, so it was hard for the phone’s camera to find it. Having the code printed on both sides of the plug would be great. Typing the code in myself wasn’t THAT big of a deal, but then it didn’t connect with my phone after several frustrating tries. So I decided to send them back. However, I tried once more the next day, and it worked. The manufacturer made beautiful, high quality Apple-like packaging, but they followed the habit of many companies nowadays of making the directions only 2-3 pages long with inadequate graphics, and in very faint print. There’s too little info in the booklet or on their website to help explain how to install and connect it, at least for “old people” like me. A few times, as others have noted, the product seems to lose connection with the app too. I don’t know exactly what the problem is, but, given enough time, it’s been able to fix itself (so far). I worry about setting up an automation to work the lights while away on vacation. What if the plug stops working and can’t fix itself? Then the automation wouldn’t work and I wouldn’t even be able to command it remotely. Would the light just stay on, or would it not come on at all? Another issue I have is having two different apps that control the switch - the Eve app and Apple’s HomeKit app. HomeKit has more functionality (potentially at least) because you can program a Siri Shortcut. I found the Eve app nicer though, because their on/off button is a simple toggle. You open the app and push the button once and the switch is either on or off. With the HomeKit app you have to open the app, tap the button for the switch, then move a slider switch up or down. Unless there’s some reason HomeKit has to do it that way, that’s just another step. I’ve exhausted efforts to find a way to make a Siri Shortcut to create a simple toggle switch. Of course, I realize that all I have to do is say: Hey Siri, turn on the Office Desk Lamp, and she does it right away. But, if I say Hey Siri, turn on the “desk light in the office” instead of “office desk lamp”, she says she can’t find it. She doesn’t seem to know that lamp and light CAN be interchangeable terms. She could at least ask for clarification - “did you mean desk LAMP?” Much of this may be construed as whining, but I feel like the product isn’t yet “ready for prime time”. Real consumer testing (not by the “boffins” who made the product) and opinion panels could help bring out products that ARE ready for prime time. Diatribe over.

Unfortunately this version requires an upgrade to Matter, which can ONLY be performed with a Mac thread border router, and not a non-Mac one. So dont buy this thinking youll just upgrade to use with non-Mac devices, because you cant. I checked with Eve support, this is working as they designed it to do. I hope this will change

I recently measured the following standby power consumption for the HomeKit-only, Thread + Bluetooth Eve Energy Smart Plug & Power Meter using the P3 Kill A Watt model P4400. Off: 0.3 to 0.4 Watts On*: 0.6 Watts *with load, which I measured separately and subtracted to get this result

Works as advertised. Quite possibly the easiest setup I’ve done.

I have an Apple, HomeKit Smart Home, with a zillion of these smart plugs, and I love them! They work flawlessly for me.

The first Eve Energy plug connected fine and is working as it should. I’ve tried many, many times to get the second to connect — following the trouble shooting guides from Eve Home website. I just cannot get it to connect and therefore it is not working. I will try again, but it’s very frustrating. Update 6/6/23 Eve Home tech support has agreed to send me a replacement for the non functional unit. They were a little slow in response, but inevitably agreed to send a replacement. I’ll boost my rating as soon as I get a functional product! Currently 4 stars, and I’m feeling good about the product.

The only reason I bought this smart plug is because it has amperage reading. The reading is embedded in their app & not easy to find, but it is there. It would be even better if this plug can use that reading to switch off the plug so that it can be used as overload protection.

The Eve Energy plugs are generally very nice and easy to install, if you are in range of a hub. The thread networking range to the Apple TV 4K is ~ 20 feet so you have to daisy chain thread devices across the house to reach distant locations. This can lead to numerous thread devices that are unused. The Eve Energy plug can monitor the voltage and power of the socket but the voltage measurement is well hidden. There is no notification possible with a desired power threshold. Low-cost, stubbed thread extenders would be nice. Also, it is too easy to shut an Eve Energy plug off. There should be a setting preventing that action. They will not fit recessed floor sockets and will not fit well behind furniture or appliances.