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Why the P115 stands out
Smart plugs are one of the least glamorous parts of a smart home, but they are also among the most useful. The TP-Link Tapo P115 is a compact Wi-Fi plug that adds remote switching, scheduling, and — most importantly — energy monitoring. That last part makes it far more useful than a basic smart plug because you can actually see what a device costs to run.
The P115 is especially attractive for Home Assistant users who want quick wins. Plug in a dehumidifier, heater, coffee machine, server rack, washing machine, or even a media center, and suddenly you have both control and data. That combination enables smarter automations than a normal on/off plug can manage.
TP-Link Tapo P115
Compact Wi-Fi smart plug with energy monitoring, schedules, and solid Home Assistant compatibility. Ideal for tracking appliance power use.
Check Price on AmazonEnergy monitoring accuracy
Energy monitoring is the feature that justifies the P115 over cheaper plugs. In testing, the live wattage readings are close enough to a reference meter to be genuinely useful for household decision-making. You can identify standby drain from TVs and consoles, confirm whether a heater is cycling properly, or monitor how much your washing machine uses per load.
It is not laboratory-grade instrumentation, but for home monitoring it is plenty accurate. More importantly, the Tapo app presents the data clearly. Daily and monthly energy history gives you enough context to notice patterns rather than just reading an isolated number on a screen.
This is also where the P115 pairs nicely with Home Assistant’s Energy Dashboard. While whole-home meters tell you the big picture, smart plugs like this explain the detail. Together they form a much clearer story of where your electricity bill is going.
App and automation features
TP-Link’s Tapo app is straightforward and polished. You can create schedules, countdown timers, away mode routines, and basic automations without fighting the interface. The plug is also physically compact enough not to be obnoxious, which sounds trivial until you have used giant smart plugs that block the adjacent outlet.
Another practical strength is reliability. In daily use, the P115 tends to reconnect cleanly after power cuts or router restarts, which is exactly what you want from a plug that may be attached to important appliances. The last thing you need is a “smart” device that turns stupid the moment your network has a wobble.
Home Assistant integration
For Home Assistant users, the P115 is especially appealing because it is easy to integrate and exposes useful entities. You get switch control plus sensors for current power, total energy, and often voltage/current depending on the integration path. That means you can build automations like “notify me when the washing machine cycle finishes” by detecting when power draw drops below a threshold.
Those power-based automations are catnip for smart home nerds because they solve real problems elegantly. Instead of using a separate vibration sensor or guessing based on time, you let the appliance tell you what it is doing indirectly through power usage.
Who should buy it
The P115 is ideal for anyone who wants to make ordinary appliances smarter without much hassle. If you already know you care about power usage or want better visibility into electricity costs, buy the monitored plug once instead of buying a cheaper plug and then wishing it had energy data. The only people who should look elsewhere are those building very large installations where Zigbee or Thread plugs may scale better than Wi-Fi.
- Great for renters and beginners
- Excellent for Home Assistant dashboards
- Very good value compared with premium energy plugs
Verdict
Our verdict
The TP-Link Tapo P115 is one of the best smart plugs with energy monitoring for most households. It is affordable, compact, reliable, and meaningfully more useful than a basic plug. If you want an easy entry point into appliance-level energy tracking, this is a strong buy.
Real-world automations that make the P115 shine
The most satisfying thing about the Tapo P115 is that it turns boring appliances into useful signal sources. A washing machine that draws 500 watts mid-cycle and then falls back to almost nothing becomes a simple automation trigger. A coffee machine that powers on every weekday at 7 AM can work in tandem with presence sensors and alarm routines. A dehumidifier can be controlled by humidity thresholds while still logging exactly how much energy it used.
That combination of switching plus measurement is what elevates the plug from convenience toy to genuinely helpful smart home tool. You stop guessing and start reacting to real device behavior, which is exactly what good automation should do.