Can’t work out how you’re churning through electricity at home? There may be a gadget worth checking out.
Belkin has this week pulled the covers off a product built for people keen to take a look inside the electricity usage in their life, as the company blends electricity with its home automation solution WeMo.
In case you’ve never seen or heard of a WeMo product, the idea is fairly simple, with Belkin providing devices for around the home that connect to an app and online system for being controlled either via app or remotely when you’re not st home.
Several devices exist in this ecosystem, and they range from light bulbs to baby monitors to cameras and more, with the idea being that anyone can make their home a little automation friendly without needing it to be gutted and rebuilt from the ground up with a renovation rescue of sorts.
The latest product does a little more than become part of the wirelessly controlled home, though, as it seeks to find out how you’re using energy in your home.
This isn’t the first time we’ve seen Belkin take an interest in electricity monitoring technology, though.
Back in 2011, the company tried its hand at another gadget designed to give you an insight into how you were consuming energy, and back then, the product was aptly named the “Insight” (above).
We haven’t seen that on shelves for quite some time, so it makes sense for Belkin to update the product four years later, and here we are with the WeMo edition of the product.
For this version, Belkin has removed the LCD screen to tell you the usage and is relying on an app to tell you just how your gadget is consuming energy, but it actually does something else.
Instead of only tracking electricity use — something that only a small quantity of plugs measure — Belkin has built in wireless control technology to let you turn the plug on and off from an app, much like it did with the original WeMo Switch, which this acts as.
“Evolving from the original WeMo Switch, the Insight Switch is an intelligent but easy to use solution for consumers to manage and better understand the energy usage of their electronic devices,” said Andrea Bruno, Belkin’s Senior Product Marketing Manager for WeMo.
“From observing whether a television has been on too long to being alerted when a laundry cycle has finished, users can observe and manage home electronics for better management and control of their home.”
The Belkin Insight Switch should integrate with any existing WeMo setup, or can even work by itself for homes starting with WeMo.
App compatibility extends to Apple’s iPhone and iPad, as well as Google’s Android (phone and tablet), with operation from home and outside the network also possible thanks to the Belkin WeMo service.
Pricing on this one comes in at $99.95 per Belkin WeMo Insight Switch plug, with availability at JB HiFi, Bunnings, and other electronics retailers.
