Leviton’s new smart Load Center brings app control to your circuit breakers

Leviton has announced a new version of its Load Center breaker box for homes, and it’s adding an integrated Wi-Fi or Ethernet hub that will let you manage your home electrical setup directly from your phone. That’s right: smart circuit breakers are here. Smart circuit breakers are here

There have been after-market products that can monitor energy use in your home before, like Sense, but Leviton’s system goes a step further by integrating smart technology directly into the breaker box and individual circuit breakers, giving homeowners far more information on the power management in their homes.

The smart Load Center works with Leviton’s existing MyLeviton app for Android and iOS, and it gives ridiculously granular data on energy use in your home, letting homeowners track power consumption on a per-appliance or branch circuit basis, get alerts when circuit breakers trip and why they did, or even remotely shut off a circuit breaker from the app. In addition to the Load Center, Leviton will also offer smart circuit breakers to go with it, which will use the integrated hub to stay updated with the latest firmware. (It’s a mildly concerning phrase to see in the same context as “circuit breakers that control your home electricity.”)

There’s no support for Google Assistant, Alexa, or Apple HomeKit yet, likely due to the fact that none of the major smart home services are designed to handle anything this complex. Also, Leviton’s smart breaker box is essentially the first to be announced, but it’s possible that deeper support could be coming in the future.

There’s no word on price or release date, but it’s probable that this will be limited to professional electricians and developers to buy and install in houses they’re building, considering the sheer complexity of installing something like this. (It’s not the sort of hardware that you’ll use on your own for a weekend project.)

If you are building a home from scratch, however, it’s a pretty cool idea. Just remember to label all your circuit breaker switches right the first time around.

Original Source: https://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2019/2/19/18231753/leviton-smart-load-center-app-control-circuit-breakers-ios-android

Original Date: Feb 19 2019

Written By: Chaim Gartenberg