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HS300 and KP115 won't detect specific device energy consumption

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HS300 and KP115 won't detect specific device energy consumption

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HS300 and KP115 won't detect specific device energy consumption
HS300 and KP115 won't detect specific device energy consumption
2021-09-13 21:35:56 - last edited 2021-09-27 05:10:19
Model: HS300  
Hardware Version: V2
Firmware Version: 1.0.3

I'm having a very strange issue with both my HS300 smart power strip and KP115 smart plug. I purchased these for various uses, and one of the main features I'm needing is energy monitoring. This has worked fine with every device I've tried them with, from a portable A/C down to a dinky phone charger and it always detects the energy consumption just fine. However, I just plugged in an LED driver (Meanwell) that I'm using for room lighting and they will not detect any consumption of energy at all. I've tried both the KP115 and multiple plugs in the HS300, and every time it reads 0.0w being pulled. Those same plugs work fine with any other device. I can still switch the device on and off, of course, but I really need it to track the energy usage of this device, which was the whole reason I sprang for the energy monitoring versions of these smart plugs.

 

I cannot for the life of me figure out why it wouldn't be able to read the energy usage of this specific device. AC power is AC power, right? What could possibly cause it to not "see" the current draw for this unit?

 

Please help!

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Re:HS300 and KP115 won't detect specific device energy consumption-Solution
2021-09-27 05:09:40 - last edited 2021-09-27 05:10:19

Hi again, I have an update to this issue. I ended up reaching out to the vendor where I'd purchased this lighting kit from to ask them if they knew anything about this issue or could suggest a way to monitor the current being pulled. They were very surprised to hear of this problem since they apparently used kill-a-watt meters regularly with this hardware. They had me test out a few things and in the end suggested sending replacement hardware. It was a bit of hassle, but worth the trouble. The replacement hardware they sent is now working perfectly with my Kasa smart plug's energy monitoring, as well as the old kill-a-watt meter I have. 

 

So, in the end, the problem was simply a hardware problem with either the LED driver or one of the lighting boards themselves. At any rate, with replacement hardware, everything is now working as expected.

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Re:HS300 and KP115 won't detect specific device energy consumption
2021-09-15 01:31:42

@Ddog800 what is the watt usage for your model Meanwell?

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Re:HS300 and KP115 won't detect specific device energy consumption
2021-09-15 09:15:45 - last edited 2021-09-15 09:16:49

@B.Will It's a Meanwell HLG-600H series. It should be able to run upwards of 600w or so, though I shouldn't be pulling anything close to that. I was expecting to see something around 70-100w being pulled.

 

Since I posted this, I dug around a bit more into the data points available from the units. I'm not sure where/if the Kasa app displays this additional info, but when I pulled it into Home Assistant it gave me access to voltage and amp data as well. I found that it is reporting voltage info (hovering between 116.8 and 117 volts), but it always reports 0 amps. This would explain why it can't calculate wattage. Furthermore, I dug up my 10 year old Kill-a-watt meter and tried it out expecting to see some watt data. Lo and behold, it's exhibiting the same behavior. It displays volts, but 0 amps and 0 wattage.

 

Something I read earlier about watt meters and how they work mentioned that if the voltage and current are out of phase from each other, which can occur in certain types of circuits, it can cause behaviors in meters similar to this. Could it be something like that? If so, is there any way to overcome that to get an accurate measurement?

 

At any rate, I'm officially at a loss, but I would really love to get some kind of measurement from this setup.

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#3
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Re:HS300 and KP115 won't detect specific device energy consumption
2021-09-15 09:47:50 - last edited 2021-09-15 09:48:23

Hello @Ddog800,

This issue should be related to how the Mean Well LED driver works, we would like to have a senior look into this further via email and see if they could help explain the situation.  

Feel free to let us know how this goes!

Smart Action 2.0 Explore and meet the next level home automation.
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Re:HS300 and KP115 won't detect specific device energy consumption
2021-09-15 18:40:16

@Solla-topee Thank you! I'll be happy to assist in any way I can to help them sort it out.

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#6
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Re:HS300 and KP115 won't detect specific device energy consumption-Solution
2021-09-27 05:09:40 - last edited 2021-09-27 05:10:19

Hi again, I have an update to this issue. I ended up reaching out to the vendor where I'd purchased this lighting kit from to ask them if they knew anything about this issue or could suggest a way to monitor the current being pulled. They were very surprised to hear of this problem since they apparently used kill-a-watt meters regularly with this hardware. They had me test out a few things and in the end suggested sending replacement hardware. It was a bit of hassle, but worth the trouble. The replacement hardware they sent is now working perfectly with my Kasa smart plug's energy monitoring, as well as the old kill-a-watt meter I have. 

 

So, in the end, the problem was simply a hardware problem with either the LED driver or one of the lighting boards themselves. At any rate, with replacement hardware, everything is now working as expected.

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