Aqara has taken the covers off of a new smart home device that, while Europe-only for now, signals a pretty exciting new category for the genre.
The Aqara Wall Outlet H2, which designed to replace standard standard 55mm wall sockets used across Europe, throws energy monitoring into the mix, although maybe not in the way you’d imagine.
While smart plugs and smart switches have tended to focus on keeping tabs own how much power you use, and therefore how much money you’re spending, the Aqara Wall Outlet H2 instead uses its energy tracking skills to make your smart home more autonomous.
By monitoring power levels at certain times of the day, you can create routines and automations based around your use.
For example, if you fire up the kettle in the morning as your first task of the day, the H2 could pick up that spike in energy use and initiate other actions like opening the blinds, disarming the security system and turning the heating on.
Or, at night time, you could switch off a lamp on your nightstand and the drop in power could turn off all the downstairs lights, arm the security system and lock the front door.
The Wall Outlet H2 is an Aqara Zigbee ‘child device’ and therefore lives in an Aqara smart home system and needs a native hub to operate, such as the all-new Aqara Hub M3.
If you use the M3 or M2 you can even get it singing and dancing within a Matter smart home too.
Whatever hub you opt for, you’ll get compatibility with the usual suspects: Apple Home, Alexa, Google Home, Samsung SmartThings and Home Assistant.
The €39.99 Aqara Wall Outlet H2 will be available from 30 May in selected European countries.
We’ve reached out to Aqara to ask if UK or US versions of the H2 are on the horizon, so be sure to check back for updates.
