When you’re as much of a home lab nerd as I am, it's hard to control the temptation to splurge on shiny new hardware. Mini-PCs can be turned into Proxmox workstations or K8s nodes (or even both, via cursed setups involving VMs), while NAS devices can serve as backup solutions. Then you've got network switches, UPS, routers, and a bunch of other gizmos that can enhance your workstations in some way or another.

However, expensive PC-oriented devices aren’t the only components you can use in a home lab. A few weeks ago, I ordered a couple of smart devices on a whim, including some Tapo plugs. Little did I know that a $10 plug would end up becoming an essential part of my experimentation setup…

I initially bought it to monitor the energy consumption of my nodes

So I can better optimize my setup

If there's one thing home servers get a lot of (justifiable) hatred for, it’s their energy-guzzling nature. Sure, modern hardware and budget-friendly devices tend to consume a lot less electricity than their old counterparts and server-grade components. But when you’ve got multiple nodes running 24/7, it’s important to keep track of your power consumption.

And now that I’ve got more home lab components than ever, I need a means to gather detailed energy metrics for all my devices. A smart plug with built-in energy monitoring provisions seemed perfect for the task.

The one (or rather, ones, since I ordered multiple units) I ended up choosing was the Tapo P110, and so far, it’s been a helpful companion for optimizing my setup. The official app is great for capturing statistics and can even export the data as spreadsheets. However, the smart plug’s utility went up a notch when I integrated it with my Home Assistant server.

It meshes well with Home Assistant

It’s pretty easy to set up

Although Home Assistant is compatible with tons of smart gadgets, it’s easy to run into devices that refuse to pair with HASS even after leveraging community integrations from HACS. Luckily for my sanity, I was able to connect my P110 plugs without too much hassle, as Home Assistant natively supports Tapo accessories. I simply went to the Devices & Services section within Settings and searched for Tapo inside the Integrations tab.

Then, I added the IP address of the smart plug alongside the Tapo cloud Username and Password, and voilà, the P110 showed up in an instant. I also repeated the process for the rest of the P110 plugs, which barely took 15 minutes. Since I’ve got my server paraphernalia scattered all over the house, I ended up creating a separate dashboard just to monitor the energy stats generated by the smart plugs.

Ideal for creating automation workflows

With the aesthetically pleasing dashboards configured, it was time to tinker with the trigger-action automations Home Assistant is famous for. First up, I created a couple of notification workflows where HASS would send an alert as soon as the energy consumption of my servers bypassed a certain threshold. The If-Then options in the Automation section simplified this process, and I nominated my Gotify server to receive these alerts. For my mini-PCs, old systems, and other non-essential Proxmox nodes, I whipped up some workflows where the smart plugs would send shutdown signals to the machines after detecting long periods of inactivity.

I love using it for laptop-turned-server setups

Especially since old laptops don’t let me reduce the charge limit

I’ve got a couple of old laptops on hand, ranging from somewhat usable gaming machines to dinosaur systems from the bygone era. Fortunately, I can leverage them in my home lab instead of tossing them out as e-waste. After tackling the battery issue, of course. You see, although the built-in battery may seem like a stand-in for a UPS, constantly pushing electricity into your laptop is terrible for its health. Over time, the battery is bound to swell up and can turn into a potential fire hazard.

Thankfully, the Tapo application’s Charge Guard facility works well with my laptop-based OMV and Proxmox servers. Typically, the energy consumed by a laptop’s charger decreases as its battery approaches the 100% mark. The Charge Guard facility constantly monitors the power consumption, and upon detecting a sudden dip in the energy supplied, it signals the P110 to stop sending more current to the laptop. Truth be told, I still prefer removing the battery, but I've got some laptops with permanently-attached batteries that can’t be disabled from the BIOS, and the Charge Guard facility works well for these nodes.