TP-Hyperlink Tapo S210 Sensible Gentle Change Evaluate vs Aqara Sensible Wall Change H1 – No Impartial Sensible Gentle Switches

This 12 months, TP-Hyperlink Tapo expanded its product vary to incorporate a brand new H100 Sensible House Hub and a more moderen, extra highly effective H200 sensible hub.

As a part of this launch, Tapo launched a variety of sensors, together with the Tapo T110 contact sensor, T310 temperature and humidity sensor, and the T100 movement sensor.

In addition they launched a number of switches, together with the Tapo S200D wi-fi dimmer swap and two wired gentle switches, the S220 2-Gang 1-Approach and the S210 single gang swap I’m reviewing immediately.

I’m an enormous fan of sensible gentle switches as they provide you an reasonably priced solution to make all of your lights sensible with out having to exchange each bulb with a wise one. That is notably helpful for rooms the place you utilize plenty of GU10 downlights, the place it could break the bank to exchange all of them.

If you would like an reasonably priced solution to improve to sensible lights, then TP-Hyperlink Tapo might be probably the most cost-efficient resolution on the market.

I paid simply £15.99 for this Tapo S210 sensible gentle swap; you then have to pair it with a Tapo hub. The  Tapo H100 is simply £14.99. Subsequently, the hub + gentle swap is cheaper than the wonderful Aqara Sensible Wall Change H1 by itself.

All through this overview, I’ll evaluate the Tapo S210 to the Aqara H1 as a result of that is what I exploit in my residence. They aren’t interoperable merchandise as they each require their very own hub, and the 2 ecosystems do not work together with one another (until you utilize third-party options).

Options

• Distant Management – Immediately flip the sunshine on/off wherever you’re by the Tapo app.
• Voice Management– Handle your swap with voice instructions through Amazon Alexa or the Google Assistant.
• Schedule – Preset a schedule to mechanically handle gadgets.
• Away Mode – Routinely flip the sunshine on and off at totally different instances to provide the looks that somebody is residence.
• Device-Free Battery Substitute – Simply exchange batteries after set up, no want of different instruments.
• No Impartial Wire Required – Tremendous simple wiring. No impartial wire is required.

Specification

• Dimensions( H X W X D ): 87.1 × 86 × 41 mm
• Hub Required: Sure
• Standby Energy Consumption: 65uA
• Score: 250 V~ 50/60 Hz 4 A
• Max Load: 600 W LED / 600W CFL / 1000W INC / 1000W FTL / 50 W Fan
• Wi-fi: 868 MHz

TP-Hyperlink Tapo S210 Wants a Battery

As I impulsively purchased this swap, I hadn’t learn the spec correctly and did not realise that this swap requires two AAA batteries (that are included within the packaging).

The Aqara Sensible Wall Change H1 would not want a battery.

I’m no electrician, so I would not take my phrase on something right here

I imagine the H1 no neutrals want a minimal load of 5W to stop the swap from changing into unresponsive. Principally, it must get its energy from someplace.

If the swap is linked to a number of lights, you will not have a difficulty, however a single low-watt gentle might trigger an issue. In some circumstances, the lights can blink when switched off.

In conditions the place the lights do not eat sufficient energy, then you possibly can overcome the issue with a capacitor in parallel with the fixture.

The TP-Hyperlink Tapo S210 avoids this difficulty through the use of batteries within the swap itself. What is not clear is how lengthy these batteries will final, I might think about they need to final fairly a very long time and changing them is simple sufficient, however it’s nonetheless not very best that you must put batteries in your gentle swap.

When you have residence wiring with impartial wires, then a wise gentle swap that accepts the impartial wire should not have these issues (I do not assume).

Design – TP-Hyperlink Tapo S210 vs Aqara Sensible Wall Change H1

Once I opened the Tapo S210, I instantly seen why it was extra reasonably priced. The general look and construct high quality shouldn’t be as good because the Aqara H1 swap. The rocker swap has a shiny plastic, and the plastic itself appears a feels a bit low-cost.

The swap has a useful little toggle on its base which lets you take away the faceplate, which you’ll need to do for set up.

Eradicating the faceplate exposes the place the batteries are situated, so changing them ought to take a number of seconds after they run out.

Like all sensible switches, that is a lot deeper than your conventional dumb swap. That is unavoidable because of it requiring extra electronics vs utilizing the swap to finish the connection.

Most older UK properties can have customary depth again bins, which is not going to be suitable with this. I virtually bought it to suit my bathroom gentle, however not fairly. The best and most cost-efficient resolution to this downside is to make use of a spacer which you could purchase from Amazon. They aren’t probably the most enticing resolution, however neither is that this swap.

TP-Hyperlink Tapo App Set Up

As a result of this gentle swap is battery-powered, you possibly can pair it as much as the hub earlier than your set up it. You do not have to, nevertheless it appears a bit simpler this fashion.

Add the swap by the app and observe the directions, which embody taking the faceplate off, you maintain down the sync button and pairing it up.

Set up – TP-Hyperlink Tapo S210 vs Aqara Sensible Wall Change H1

Becoming gentle switches is far simpler than you may count on, and customarily, it’s fairly protected to do, so long as you turn the lights off on the circuit breaker.

I’m horrible at DIY, so that you’d assume that messing round with my residence electrics is a horrible thought, however I have not electrocuted myself but.

Principally, if doubtful, all the time swap the electrics off on the circuit breaker.

With this, you simply have to put the new reside into the Lin gap and the switched reside within the Lout1. Once you screw them in place, make certain they’re locked in place.

You may then repair the becoming again onto the again field.

Sensible Actions / Automation – TP-Hyperlink Tapo S210 vs Aqara Sensible Wall Change H1

With the sunshine swap put in and the facility again on, now you can use the sunshine swap as regular. It’s a rocker swap, so that you press it down, and it pops again into place.

You may then swap it on/off through the app in addition to arrange schedules to show it on/off.

The primary promoting level for me is to make use of it with the Tapo T100 sensible movement sensor.

With the T100 fitted in my bathroom, I can go to the sensor within the app and discover sensible actions. I opted for:

Flip lights on if you come and go, then flip off after 2 minutes

Then you possibly can choose the machine you need to activate. This may be bulbs, gentle strips, sensible plugs or the sunshine swap. You can even flip a number of plugs on.

Various sensible management choices might be enabled by Google House Assistant, Amazon Alexa or IFTTT.

Compared to my Aqara gentle switches and movement sensors, it’s not pretty much as good. For instance, the movement sensor automation offers me choices to set off it primarily based on movement and brightness ranges, permitting me to solely set off the swap if the room is darkish sufficient. The sunshine swap additionally has higher controls, you possibly can fully disable the swap from triggering the lights and as an alternative, assign the swap to set off an automation.

Worth and Various Choices

The TP-Hyperlink Tapo S210 has an RRP of £20 however is extensively accessible for round £16.

The two-gang S220 has an RRP of £30 and is offered for round £20.

You’ll then want a Tapo H100 Sensible Hub, which has an RRP of £20 and is offered for £15.

I might additionally strongly suggest the Tapo T100 sensible sensor, which is £18 RRP and accessible for £14.

That is an especially aggressive worth level for all of the Tapo sensible residence gadgets.

As compared, for no impartial sensible switches, you could have:

• Aqara Sensible Wall Change H1
• MoesGo ZigBee Gentle Change (non-obligatory impartial): £24
• Candeo Wifi Rotary Dimmer (no hub wanted/Tuya): £38

For Aqara, you’d additionally want a hub. The most affordable sensible hub they’ve on Amazon is the E1 at £30, or the M2, which I exploit, is £55. This implies it could price £66 for Aqara vs £31 Tapo when you purchased a single swap and hub.

Aqara additionally works with the Homey Bridge and SmartThings. Aqara additionally works properly with House Assistant, whereas it appears just like the Tapo solely has restricted integration with House Assistant with no gentle swap performance that I can discover, but.

Total

Contemplating the value, it’s onerous to criticise the TP-Hyperlink Tapo S210 sensible gentle swap, however I’ll level out a few of its quirks:

• Sure, I might like the looks and construct high quality to be higher, however competing choices are usually not precisely probably the most enticing.
• I might want no batteries, however it could appear that for a lot of no-neutral installations, you’d have to suit a capacitor, I might sooner take care of batteries than putting in a capacitor.
• The TP-Hyperlink Tapo app is nowhere close to pretty much as good as Philips Hue
• Third-party integrations is inferior to different ecosystems (together with Kasa).

With that out of the way in which, the S210 is lower than half the value of the Aqara Sensible Wall Change H1, which buys it plenty of leeway. The sensible hub can also be considerably cheaper.

Establishing the automation could also be extra time shopper than the likes of Philips Hue and there are fewer choices vs many different manufacturers. However, as soon as it’s achieved, it really works precisely how I need. For fundamental schedules and movement detection, I actually cannot fault it, it really works completely.

It barely prices greater than a traditional dumb gentle swap from a good model like Schneider, which makes it unimaginable worth for cash.

Total, I believe that is an impressive reasonably priced sensible gentle swap.

Final replace on 2023-08-17 / Affiliate hyperlinks / Photographs from Amazon Product Promoting API