Wattson Optiplug

The Wattson Optiplug was an intelligent socket which switched on your appliances when your PV system generates spare electricity. However, the Wattson Optiplug is no longer on sale

If you’re looking for a simple way to send renewable electricity to your immersion heater see our post on how to maximise the efficiency of your solar PV system and these products on Amazon:

• PowerFlow E.R.S Mini Solar Immersion Heater (£520)
• PowerFlow E.R.S PRO 6kW Solar Immersion Heater (£750)
• Solic 200 Solar Power Immersion Heater (£140)

See also our post on the best energy monitors and our review of the Emporia Vue monitor for homes with solar PV.

Wattson Optiplug – the smart solar socket

The Wattson Optiplug is a smart socket learns how much electricity is used by the appliances that are plugged into it. Optiplug then only switches on when enough electricity is available for those appliances, switching off when electricity is no longer free.

Optiplugs contain intelligence to prioritise higher power appliances over lower ones, if more than one Optiplug is used. The product’s designers have added a short delay between enough surplus energy being available and each Optiplug turning on. The delay is inversely proportional to the amount of power the appliance plugged into each Optiplug requires, so higher power appliances turn on first. The delay is long enough that the Wattson transmitter picks up on the increased energy consumption so the next Optiplug will only turn on is there is still enough surplus power available for the lower power appliance to come on.

The Optiplug works with existing Wattson Solar Plus, Wattson Professional and original Wattson systems.

NB: To use an Optiplug you do need a Wattson Solar Plus, as that is the device which determines if you are generating more than you are consuming at any given moment and tells the Optiplug when to switch on and off.

How it works

The Optiplug learns how much electricity is used by the appliance (chargers, aircon etc) it is connected to in the first three minutes of operation. Optiplug uses Wattson sensors to constantly measure the power being generated by Solar PV and also power in use in the home. This data is transmitted over RF to the clever Optiplug system and if there is enough energy it will switch on.

• It will switch off if it is using too much electricity
• The system knows not to keep things switching on and off
• Optiplug can listen to up to 4 transmitters, just like the Wattson Solar Plus
• There is a manual override button should you wish to keep the item on
• There is a time delay on switching off and switching on, so that multiple optiplugs don’t compete for the same amount of spare energy
• The Optiplug is not currently programmable to be switched on for a certain time period e.g. 2.5 hours for a washing cycle.

The Wattson Optiplug can be used with any device that uses/charges with electricity, that doesn’t require a manual switch on (unlike most washing machines) and doesn’t mind being turned off at random, such as:

• Tumble dryer
• Washing machine
• Air conditioner
• Electric heater
• Heated towel rail
• Storage heater
• Air to air heat source pump
• Immersion heater
• Electric slow cooker
• Water pumping
• Charging electronics
• Golf buggy
• Electric car
• Hot tub
• Pool pump
• Auto pool cleaner
• Water pumping

The Wattson Optiplug is SOLD OUT

See our post on the best energy monitors and our review of the Emporia Vue monitor for homes with solar PV.