Eve Energy Outlet Review | PCMag

Smart plugs offer an easy way to control lamps, coffee makers, and other small appliances using any outlet in your home, but if you want a more permanent solution, a hardwired outlet like the Eve Energy Outlet is the way to go. A dual-receptacle outlet, the Energy Outlet can be controlled using the Eve app (iOS only) or with Apple’s Home app, and because it supports Matter and Thread, you can add it to your Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant, and Samsung SmartThings ecosystems if you have the proper hub(s). Its $49.99 price is significantly more than you’ll pay for a non-smart dual-receptacle outlet, but the Energy Outlet’s cross-platform compatibility and energy reporting earn it an Editors’ Choice award nonetheless.

Design and Features

The Energy Outlet has a white finish, measures 4.7 by 2.9 by 1.7 inches (HWD), and contains a pair of three-prong receptacles that can be individually controlled. Each receptacle has a small backlit button for turning the power on or off. The outlet has a 15W/1800A rating and is designed solely for indoor use. As an outdoor-friendly alternative, the $34.99 Leviton Smart GFCI Outlet lets you monitor out-of-the-way appliances like pool pumps, but it does not provide power usage reports or work with third-party smart home protocols like the Eve Energy Outlet.

Protruding from the back of the Eve Energy Outlet are white (neutral), black (line), and green (ground) wires. It comes with a white snap-on faceplate, wire nuts, mounting screws, and a quick start guide.

The Energy Outlet requires iOS/iPadOS 16.4 or Android 8.1 and supports Thread wireless networking as well as Matter technology, which allows it to work with a number of home automation platforms including Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, Google Assistant, and Samsung SmartThings. As such it requires the use of a hub that is connected to your home network and that functions as a Matter controller and a Thread border router. The Eve website offers a comprehensive list of compatible hubs, but a few examples include the Apple TV 4K and HomePod, the SmartThings Hub and SmartThings Station, the Amazon Echo and Echo Show 8, and the Google Nest Hub and Nest Hub Max. Regardless of which platform you use when first installing the outlet, you can add it to other platforms as long as you use a corresponding Matter-enabled hub on the same network (it will continue to use the first hub as a Thread router). Once installed, the Energy Outlet will serve as a Thread router that allows other Eve devices to join the network.

(Credit: Eve)

You can turn the outlets on and off using Alexa, Google, Siri, and SmartThings voice commands and with their respective apps, and you can create scenes and automations for all of these platforms, but you’ll need either the Eve or SmartThings app to see how much power each receptacle is using. The Eve app, which is only available on iOS at the time of this writing, also lets you create automations to have the outlet work with other Eve devices like the Eve Outdoor Cam and the Eve Flare LED orb.

(Credit: Eve)

Inside the Eve app, the Energy Outlet appears in a panel on the Rooms screen and can be pinned to the My Home screen as well. Tap the Rooms panel to open a screen where you can control both receptacles independently and create on and off schedules based on the time of day, your location (geofencing), and the sunrise and sunset. Tap either outlet to view total energy consumption, projected consumption, and projected power costs (per year) for each receptacle.

Tap the Automations button at the bottom of the screen to create scenes, set scene timers, and make rules to have Eve devices interact with one another. The Settings button opens a screen where you can adjust the LED brightness, enter energy rates for power usage cost calculations, view Thread network information, and enable a Child Lock that disables the onboard buttons.

Installation and Performance

As with any electrical outlet, the Energy Outlet must be installed in a wall box and requires working with electrical wiring. If you’re not comfortable with that, you should hire a professional to do the job. I started by turning off the power to the circuit at my breaker box before removing the old outlet. I connected the Eve outlet’s black, white, and green wires to their corresponding house wires (green goes to ground) and secured them using the included wire nuts. I used the included screws to attach the outlet to the wall box and snapped on the faceplate before restoring power to the circuit.

For the app setup, you can add the outlet to your home automation platform of choice as long as you have a hub that supports Matter and Thread. I used a second-gen Apple HomePod and the iOS Home app, which recognized the device immediately. I then followed the instructions to scan the Matter code found on the quick start guide, gave the outlet a name, and waited a few seconds for it to be added to my Apple Home and to the Eve app.

Controlling the Eve Energy Outlet via Amazon Alexa (left) and Apple Home (right) (Credit: Amazon, Apple)

To add it to my Alexa device list, I tapped Turn On Pairing Mode in the outlet’s Apple Home settings, copied the setup code, then switched to the Alexa app and tapped Add Device. I selected Plug in the Device list, tapped Eve, and copied the code into the Matter box when prompted. After a few seconds, the outlet was identified. I named both receptacles and they were added to my Alexa device list.

The Energy Outlet worked well in testing. It responded instantly to on and off commands using the Alexa, Apple Home, and Eve apps, and had no trouble executing Alexa and Siri voice commands. Geofencing also worked as intended.

I created an Alexa routine to have a receptacle turn on when a Eufy SoloCam camera detected motion and it worked flawlessly, as did my Apple Home scene to turn off both receptacles at sunset. Energy consumption readings were in line with readings that I received from a Kill A Watt meter.

A Smart Outlet for Any Platform

With support for Matter and Thread, the Eve Energy Outlet can be used with popular home automation platforms such as Amazon Alexa, Apple HomeKit, Google Assistant, and SmartThings. It lets you use your phone and voice commands to control anything that you plug into it, and it will tell you how much power each receptacle is using. In addition to flexible scheduling, it offers geofencing triggers and works with routines and scenes that you can create with your platform of choice. Its robust feature set and excellent performance earn it our Editors’ Choice award. If you prefer the ease of use and portability of a smart plug, consider the more affordable TP-Link Kasa Smart Wi-Fi Plug Slim With Energy Monitoring (KP125M)—there’s no wiring involved and it works with Matter, but it only offers one receptacle and doesn’t support Thread.