GoKawiilTing Smart Sensor 4 / 5 Very good pros and cons Pros On sale for $84.
Monitors your home's wiring in the background.
Weekly reports show appliance cycles and household power usage trends. Cons Outage maps are limited compared to utility and PowerOutage.us. $84.15 at Amazon
Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google.
How do you review a product that does absolutely nothing except sit there with a little green indicator light on?
As background, I should tell you about the pitch I got. Product vendors often employ press representatives who reach out to journalists, writers, bloggers, and influencers, whatever you want to call us, to try to convince us to cover their products.
Last summer, I had just published an article about finding electrical circuits in my Fab Lab when I got a pitch from a PR person saying, "Given the Fab Lab has electronics with high electricity demand, Ting could give you some serious peace of mind, especially when you're away from home."
Also: This 5-minute circuit check uncovered a home wiring issue I had no idea about
I have a lot of robots here. The Fab Lab (short for fabrication lab) is a room filled with 3D printers, servers, and a laser cutter. It uses quite a bit of electricity, which is why I wrote that article about mapping electrical use.
Now, to be fair, I almost never run the Fab Lab machines when nobody is home. It has happened, but it's a very rare occurrence. Even so, my interest was piqued. I would like to know more about the power profile in my home.
... continue reading