The NOUS A4Z outdoor smart plug allows you to control up to 2 plugged-in electrical devices, from your phone, anywhere in the world and create different automatic switch-on and switch-off routines.
Why is the NOUS-A4Z Zigbee plug popular?
For starters, Zigbee technology is the technology of the moment if you want to have a smart home and this NOUS-A4Z plug uses this technology.
But it is also an outdoor smart plug and there are very few other smart plugs on the market that fulfil this function.
As it is a double socket, you can control 2 electrical devices individually, which is a very interesting detail and also measures the overall energy consumption (i.e. of the two devices plugged in at the same time and not individually), which allows you to follow this consumption in real time and over time.
Advantages and disadvantages of the NOUS A4Z Zigbee Outdoor Plug
Advantages
- Outdoor use: In Zigbee, there is often a lack of devices for the garden and being able to have an outdoor smart plug is very practical.
- Double socket: You can use it to connect up to 2 electrical devices.
- Measures consumption: In addition to ON/OFF control of 2 electrical devices, you can also monitor electricity consumption.
- Compatibility: It is compatible with Tuya Smart Life home automation systems (Moes, Lidl, Nous etc), Jeedom and Home Assistant.
- Zigbee router: By communicating with Zigbee technology, this plug automatically repeats the Zigbee communications signal.
- Physical buttons: If you want to activate or deactivate the electrical devices plugged into the NOUS-A4Z socket without using your phone, you have physical buttons to do so.
- Price: NOUS once again offers a device at a very attractive price.
Disadvantages
- You need a Zigbee hub: The NOUS A4Z plug has to be linked to a Zigbee hub to control it from your phone.
- Does not measure consumption individually: Although the function of measuring the power consumption is a very interesting detail, it would have been better to be able to measure the consumption of the 2 plugs individually and not the overall consumption, in order to be able to keep track of the consumption of each device.
- The cable is short: It would have been interesting to have a longer plug cable to be able to take advantage of it in some environments.
Tutorial on how to use the NOUS A4Z Outdoor Smart Plug
In a smart home, we can manage different aspects such as blinds, lights and heating. But we may also be interested in controlling our garden, and one device that is very practical and can be used in different contexts is an outdoor smart plug.
Technical details of the Nous A4Z Zigbee double socket
Zigbee technology is an excellent way to manage your smart home.
There are plenty of Zigbee smart plugs available, but it was difficult to find a plug that could be used outdoors.
After the success of the indoor Zigbee plug NOUS A1Z proposed by the Polish company, the company proposes a new plug, actually a double plug, this time for outdoor use.
Let’s discover the technical details of this dual Zigbee socket.
To begin with, this NOUS A4Z Zigbee double socket has an IP44 protection rating, which is sufficient for outdoor use.
Its design is made of black ABS plastic.
Being a double socket, it takes up space with its dimensions of 110x52x242mm, but a very interesting detail is that it has a separate cable so as not to disturb other sockets that you may have next to it, since you will have the possibility of plugging in other devices.
Perhaps this cable could be a little longer.
At the front, there are 2 sockets protected by 2 plastic covers.
These sockets can handle loads of up to 16A in total or 3680W. In other words, you should not exceed this value and it is even advisable not to get close to this limit value in order not to damage the device. Please note, this is the maximum load in total, not for each socket.
And we have 3 LED indicators: two of them above each socket to indicate whether the socket is currently on or off and an indicator of its Zigbee connection.
In the middle, we have a physical button that allows you to turn the two sockets on or off, BUT you cannot control the sockets individually from this physical button.
This individual control can be done from our phone.
At the back, we have a bracket that allows us to fix this double socket on a wall, which is another interesting detail.
Configuration of the Nous A4Z Zigbee double socket
Now, we are going to include the Nous A4Z Zigbee double socket to our home automation hub. You can use a Tuya hub such as one from LIDL Silvercrest, MOES or NOUS.
You can also use Zigbee2mqtt with Home Assistant.
Or Jeedom.
This Zigbee2mqtt platform is very popular, with manufacturers even putting this logo on the packaging.
One of the reasons for its success is that, based on my impressions, 99% of smart devices with Zigbee technology are compatible or will be compatible with this Zigbee2mqtt platform if they are newly released.
In addition to being compatible, we also usually have access to all device parameters, giving us the best experience of a unified and advanced smart home.
To sum up, it is currently, in my opinion, the best solution to be able to personalise your smart home to the maximum by being able to choose different brands on the market and put it all together with Zigbee2mqtt.
The user of a smart home that manages different aspects of his house had 2 sockets with Z-Wave technology from FIBARO: one to manage the pool filtration and the other to switch on or off the transformer of the robot hoover in the pool.
By the way, if you notice, this robot additionally has a smart button to activate it from your phone.
However, having these plugs exposed to the outdoors is NOT a recommended use as these plugs are not specifically designed for outdoor use and can quickly become damaged.
This is what happened to the user, who had to put in polyester because of waterproofing problems and replace his sockets every year.
But now you can replace these plugs, put them inside your home to give them other uses and use the Zigbee Nous double socket that DOES suit your use.
To link this double socket, use the Jeedom home automation hub and the process is similar with Home Assistant. You must access the Zigbee2mqtt platform and launch the opt-in mode.
At this point, you should plug in your double socket and the mains LED on the socket should flash, meaning that it is in inclusion mode. If this is not the case, you should press the physical button on the plug for 5 to 7 seconds until this LED starts flashing.
Done, after a few seconds, the plug appears on the Zigbee2mqtt interface and we now have control of this plug from anywhere in the world.
A very interesting detail is that it has a memory setting of its status before power failure.
For example, if you set the “Restore” mode, this means that the socket, when there is a power failure, will recover exactly the same state when the power is restored.
If, for example, the user has a power failure and the power comes back on, but the plug stays OFF, then the pool is not filtered until the user realises it, which is sometimes too late.
You can also decide to have the socket automatically switched on or off after a power failure.
Another option is to adjust the LED indicators above the double socket.
To always activate them, always deactivate them or even invert them, e.g. LEDs are on when the sockets are off and vice versa.
We can see energy information such as the current consumption in watts, the current current and voltage measured, and also the accumulated consumption measured by socket, which is a very interesting detail to keep track of our energy costs. Although it is a total measured consumption, i.e. you will not know the individual consumption of each of the 2 sockets.
We have an option called “Child Lock” that allows you to disable the use of the physical button so that nobody can turn this double socket on or off from its physical button, which can be interesting if you have children and you don’t want them to manipulate your sockets.
However, you can deactivate the Child Lock function by quickly pressing the physical button 4 times.
And “Link Quality” is the Zigbee signal quality, i.e. you will know if your device has good communication with your Zigbee home automation hub.
As an outdoor device, if the distances are long, you can use other Zigbee devices connected to the power supply in your house at medium distances, such as sockets, light bulbs or Zigbee smart modules, to automatically improve communications thanks to a Zigbee mesh network that is formed with these devices to help each other.
And this NOUS A4Z socket, when connected to the mains, also serves as a Zigbee signal repeater, so it can cover more remote areas.
In the case of the user, it is practical for him to avoid communication failures of his Zigbee water quality monitor.
And for your Zigbee temperature sensor that are in your pool.
If we go to the specific parameters of the double socket, we can see additional options for calibration of the device measurements, if necessary.
If you want a simple solution, instead of using Zigbee2mqtt, you can use a Tuya home automation hub and the Smart Life application. The process is similar.
Go to the Smart Life interface on your phone.
Launch inclusion mode.
And link your double socket.
After a few seconds, this double socket appears in your application.
And now you can control this device from your phone.
You can also keep track of energy consumption and adjust Child Lock parameters and status storage.
And of course, if you have Amazon Alexa or Google Home voice assistants linked to your home automation hub, you will be able to control these sockets by voice, which is interesting in some contexts.
In the case of the user who installed this plug in his garden, it will allow him to keep track of his consumption, switch on the robot remotely and additionally use a Zigbee button to activate it.
In addition, you can automate pool filtration as it measures water temperature with its Zigbee Yieryi water quality meter.
It also measures the temperature of your pool water with a separately wired Zigbee temperature sensor from Owon.
Thanks to this socket, you can have activation and deactivation cycles depending on the temperature of your pool water, weather conditions and any other event that you can define in your automations from the home automation hub.
Your imagination is your limit; there are other applications that you can control with this double socket, such as your garden lights and any other device that you are going to plug in thanks to this Zigbee double socket which, in addition to its many technical advantages, also comes at an attractive price.
Technical characteristics of the Zigbee outdoor double socket
- No. of sockets: 2 sockets
- Compatibility: Tuya Smart Life (Lidl, Nous, Moes etc), Jeedom and Home Assistant (with Zigbee2MQTT)
- Dimensions of the device: 110 x 52 x 242 mm
- Operating voltage range: 100 ~ 240 V – 50 HZ
- Rated current: 16 A (total)
- Maximum supported load: 3680 W
- Operating temperature: 0°C to 40°C
- Moisture protection level: IP44
- Operating humidity: 10% to 90%.
- Protocol: ZigBee 3.0
- Support for voice assistants: Alexa and Google Assistant
- Frequency range: 2405 – 2480 MHz
- Maximum transmitting power: 20 dBm
