This is a wishlist item.
I’d like to see your AC outlet get a smaller footprint than the wide one it has now.
Better yet, if you can incorporate it into a standard 15A residential grade grounding duplex outlet, in the basic 4 colors. BOOM, your revenur sales just went through the ceiling, with both existing homes and new homes incorporating your wifi controlled outlets. You need to offer in the app, a way to bypass the wifi and let it operate like a normal outlet, if desired. I’d give you 3 months to develop it or miss the boat to market as other companies develop something similar and/or team up with major sources like Leviton.
Wall-installed smart outlets already exist, so that boat has already sailed.
While they might be popular for new home builds, they are less popular otherwise vs. smart plugs than you appear to believe. First, consider renters. They usually can’t go changing out their outlets. Next, consider people that would never do their own electrical work and would have to call an electrician. If they are going with a low cost brand like Wyze, do you really think they would do that vs. buying a smart plug?
I’m not saying Wyze shouldn’t eventually do one, but it wouldn’t be the huge seller you appear to believe.
Also, as to, “You need to offer in the app, a way to bypass the wifi and let it operate like a normal outlet, if desired”, why would such a feature be needed? A smart outlet that is on functions exactly the same as a standard outlet. Like smart plugs, all the smart outlets I’ve seen have a manual on/off button, so that even if someone moved into a place that already had existing smart outlets, they could still turn them on (and off, if desired) without even needing an app.
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Lonnie:
This is from my POV. If I sign a 1-year lease, other than not painting the walls of the rental unit, I change things that make life simplier for the year, that can obviously be changed back when my lease expires. I also make it a point to leave the place in better condition than when I moved in. There are exceptions to every rule, for example corporate owned rentals. Privately owned are more reasonable.
The reason for the by-pass is because the Wyze outlet does not come on
immediately when power or a brown out occurs. It still has to interrogate the network. I have had instances where power comes one but the wifi provider is still down.
I’ve seen the smart outlets on Amazon. Price point is comparable to Wyze. But it would be preferrable to be controlled by your app since cameras, etc are on it already as opposed to having another app controlling another device.
Why? I have smart wall switches (dimmers) installed and they work just fine for local physical control without any smart features configured at all, with or without Internet and with or without the manufacturer’s servers being online. Why would smart outlets be ANY different? They shouldn’t, other than trying to remember last state after a power interruption.