New Arrival KP125M: Kasa's First Matter-Compatible Smart Plug w/ Improved Energy Monitoring
KP125M: Kasa's first Matter-Compatible Smart Plug w/ New Energy Monitoring Features
We are excited to announce the introduction of the Matter Protocol into our line of Kasa Smart devices, starting with the KP125M. This marks a significant milestone for us, as we aim to provide you with new products and major features updates over the coming months.
Kasa’s First Matter-Compatible Device Is Available on Amazon Today! OR
Read More about the KP125M on the Official Product Page
Please Note: The new Energy Monitoring feature is currently only available for the KP125M. To ensure that you can access this feature, please make sure that your device is using the latest firmware and that your app is up-to-date.
Energy Monitoring:
Energy Usage:
The First Tab, Energy Usage, allows you to track the consumption of the device over the period of an hour. This will be the most accurate representation of how many kWh were consumed during the period.
To View the extended history of your energy usage you may scroll the chart to the previous period. Or,
You may use the Energy Calendar Feature to quickly get an overview for each day of the month.
Power Consumption / Usage:
The next tab introduced is the Device’s Power Consumption, which is distinct from energy usage because it reflects the constantly changing power requirements of the device. If you have devices that consume varying amounts of energy based on their settings, the power consumption tab may be more useful to you.
When you access the Power tab in the menu, all values are presented as average power consumption over the selected time period.
Billing Settings:
On the Bill Settings page, you can adjust the cost per kilowatt-hour (kWh) charged by your utility company. This enables you to more accurately pinpoint any devices contributing to higher energy bills during specific periods.
Billing Type:
Depending on your utility plan, you may pay a flat rate for your energy, or your rates may change depending on the time of day or season.
Seasonal Scheduling:
The Kasa app offers two separate sets of schedules to accommodate any rate changes from your ISP.
You may set two Schedules, Summer and Winter, with customized energy usage rates, date ranges, and time-of-use settings.
Data Exports:
You can now generate an export file for both the energy usage and power consumption of a device. To do so, access the upper right menu and select the Export All Data option.
Once you have selected the Export option, the exported data will be sent to the email address you specified in the form of two separate CSV files. The first file will summarize the energy usage in kilowatt-hours (kWh), with hourly divisions. The second file will provide the power consumption data, which will be divided into 5-minute intervals.
Energy Calendar:
With the Energy Calendar feature, you can identify the days when your devices consumed the most energy, track your monthly energy usage, and view the associated costs based on the schedules and rates you have configured.
You can access the Energy Calendar anytime by clicking on the calendar icon located in the top right corner of the screen.
Time-Of-Use and Peak Hours:
On the Bill Settings screen, you can set up both the hourly schedule for peak hours and the price per kilowatt-hour (kWh) charged by your utility company. To adjust the rates, you can access the Billing Overview screen.
The Left Column Provides Options to Configure the Peak Hours of Weekdays
The Right Column Provides Options to Configure the Peak Hours of Weekends
In Hourly Increments, you may select whether that hour will calculate your energy usage for that hour using the Off-Peak, Mid-Peak, or Peak Rates set on the previous screen.
As this is the first device to receive the feature, our team welcomes any feedback or ideas for improvements to the feature. Please feel free to let us know in the comments below.
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@Riley_S It's a good sign that someone working for a company is an actual user of the products.
One technical note about the KP125M: The Kasa app properly shows power use attached to the plug. However, when I tried using the Tapo app again today, it initially didn't show power use until after I had run the Kasa app for that same plug. It's possible there was just a delay in the Tapo app retrieving the data, rather than an issue with the app. I have no idea if this is at all related to issues with data over Matter.
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You could likely create a new thread with this behavior tbh.
Was the device setup via the Tapo App, or via the Kasa App and then integrated to Tapo?
I believe that the energy data is stored locally on the plug so it may have needed that initial kick to connect and communicate with the cloud, but I will look into how this data actually flows into the Tapo app.
From what I can tell, there is a difference in the devices and a Kasa device doesn't suddenly become a Tapo device in every aspect - I am currently experimenting with Voice Assitant Integrations right now.
When it comes to anything energy monitoring right now, it will be in relation to our own platforms. Once Matter adds support for the feature, a firmware update would be needed to add this functionality.
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@Riley_S I'm currently doing a project at our complex to look at energy use of various Christmas light installations here. The KP125M is a useful tool for this (currently working with the Kasa app). I'm using a set of 4 KP125M outlets configured as a separate 'residence' from outlets in my apartment. Because all of the lights have contant consumption (except for control via timers), I'm swapping in the outlets for long enough to get reliable measurements, then changing to different installations.
I find that the Kasa software has limitations for this kind of project, or more generally for collecting data from multiple smart plugs. It would be helpful if the Kasa app could download data for all devices in a single 'residence' at once (or possibly using additional criterai) instead of having to do a download for each outlet.
I'm looking forward to improved Matter integration, working with a platform like Home Assistant, which might make this simpler. Is another method available for this kind of bulk data download?
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I do not believe so. The ability to export the energy data was actually added when the KP125M released originally. I will make sure that I request this feature now that everyone is beginning to add more energy monitoring plugs to their homes.
If I am not mistaken, the energy monitoring values are actually stored on the plug itself, not in the cloud. It may be that the current process communicates directly with the plug to compile the data for the export, rather than simply pulling a report from the cloud.
For the KP125M and Home Assistant, I was only personally able to test the matter functionality - which doesn't yet support energy monitoring. I notice that on the HA integrations page the KP125M is not listed as compatible via the normal Kasa integration. Do you happen to have any more information about the limitations of this, such as if the device cannot be controlled at all, or if the basic on/off functionality is still available via the Kasa integration?
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@Riley_S Thanks for the quick reply. I'm sure that as more folks get energy monitoring smart plugs, there'll be more interest in how this feature can be used.
Re Matter integration w/ Home Assistant, I know very little about plans for integrating this with energy monitoring. I have the Matter integration installed in Home Assistant (latest update), but it's not functional for me yet. It seems to have promise, but it may take a while to see results.
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@JCH2103 ps - See https://www.home-assistant.io/blog/2023/12/04/nabu-casa-at-the-matter-member-meeting/ Looks like the Eve Energy Plug has early support for energy metering with Matter, although I don't know what that means in practice.
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I saw this article come through earlier :)
Thanks for the link, I am literally already in conversations with our product and QA team about some of the contents of the article :)
Clusters are like the building blocks of the commands, almost like attributes - this exists for other mesh IoT systems like Z-Wave and Zigbee.If you have a Zigbee network, you can actually alter and set these up from the WebUI.
From the sounds of the article, it is a homebrew version of energy support, and would be extremely specific to Home Assistant. I would imagine that our teams would be more likely to develop for the standard rather than a platform, but I will see what I can dig up.
I will mention that CES is right around the corner, and our team will be in attendance. I will make sure that the entire community is aware of our announcements and any announcements from others that could impact your devices.
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