ZDNET Highlights
- Ting quietly monitored the wiring but thankfully found no problems after months of use.
- Weekly reports show appliance cycle and home power usage trends.
- Outage maps are limited compared to utility and PowerOutage.us
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How do you review a product that does nothing except light a little green indicator light?
As background, let me tell you about the pitch I received. Product sellers often employ press representatives who reach out to journalists, writers, bloggers, and influencers, whatever you want to call us, to try to convince us to cover their products.
In July, I published an article about finding electrical circuits in my fab lab, when I got a pitch from a PR person saying, “Fab labs have electronics with high power demands, ting You can have peace of mind, especially when you’re away from home.”
Also: How a circuit breaker finder helped me map out my home’s wiring (and why it matters)
I have a lot of robots here. A fab lab (short for fabrication lab) is a room filled with 3D printers, servers, and laser cutters. It uses a lot of electricity, which is why I wrote that article about mapping electricity usage.
Now, to be fair, I almost never run Fab Lab machines when no one is home. This has happened, but it is a very rare occurrence. Still, my interest was piqued. I would like to know more about the electrical profile in my house.
When the Ting device arrived, I opened it, set it up, and plugged it in. Setting it up involves loading an app and connecting that app to your wireless network and device. The process works just like connecting any other smart home device.
After that you wait. The device “takes approximately seven days to analyze electrical background signal levels to establish a baseline before detecting electrical fire hazards.” It looks for signs of electrical surges, which often worsen over time, leading to fire.
I’ve been running Ting for a few months.
home monitoring
Luckily, the device did absolutely nothing. This is a good thing because it means there is no fault in the power or electrical circuits in my house.
It just sits there. Sometimes, it stares back at us. It mostly goes about its own business while it keeps our electrical system running. But no action was taken. It doesn’t do anything. It doesn’t move. So how do I recommend it?
Also: 8 smart home gadgets I invested in this year — and how they’re already paying off
Normally, I do hands-on testing in my reviews, but my hands-on testing for this thing basically means staying away from it until it complains, and it didn’t.
What it has done is send me reports. Each week, it sends me a voltage report for all seven days of the previous week. Here’s one from last week.
Notice, in particular, how quiet things are between about 3 p.m. and noon. Large spikes usually indicate major appliances drawing power or our HVAC systems turning on, etc.
Also: How to check for electrical fire hazards at home – and my smart sensor for the task
Now, here’s one from mid-August. There is a lot of activity at midnight as we were running the AC during the peak of summer. You can see various systems turning on and off.
check it out now. Activity is dense across the chart, including in the middle of the night. This Fab Lab is operational. Every time a 3D printer heats up, moves its gantry, or cycles its internal temperature management, power usage changes.
App Features
There are some other monitoring features in the Connected app… well, they could be better. One feature is real-time monitoring. Here you can see two charts.
The one on the left was captured for a baseline of home usage. The one on the right was captured when one of the 3D printers was active. As you can see, there’s not much to see here.
Unfortunately, the chart only shows 20 seconds of usage, so it is not easy to see any patterns or trends. I want it to have a scale where you can see five minutes, 30 minutes, an hour and maybe three hours. This way, you will be able to practically observe any changes in electrical behavior.
Also: This new app lets you easily track nearby power outages — and it’s free
Another highly promoted feature is real-time data on local power outages. ZDNET’s Artie Beatty demonstrated this a few weeks ago. “Since the map is based on Ting devices, it may not be 100% accurate,” he said. Boy, is it true?
Take a look at these two maps. The one on the left was produced by the Ting app. The one on the right was produced by my power company’s app, which has an outage tab.
Obviously, there is much less information on the Ting map than on the power company. I also don’t like the dark gray on black style of the Ting map, as it makes it hard to see location information.
I think the idea that Ting is doing nationwide electricity monitoring is interesting. But until a larger number of these devices exist, and more information than the evidence now shows, this is more of a stunt feature than anything particularly useful for emergency management.
Right now, if I wanted to look at nationwide power outage information, I would probably look at PowerOutage.usWhich has some very good data. i just saw it oregon data And it matched my power company pretty well.
ZDNET’s shopping advice
Ting Electrical Fire Prevention Sensor It’s $99 on Amazon. Do not confuse it with Ting Anti-Fungal CreamThe Ting Sparkling Jamaican Grapefruit DrinkThe Ting Mango Vitamin B Complex + Ginseng Supplement Moon JuiceThe Ting Ting Jahe Ginger CandyOr Ting Ao Quick Disconnect Electrical Wire Harness KitBecause they are different,
Look, the Ting sensor is interesting. There appear to be some battle-tested examples of the device’s value.
according to washpoTing devices helped public officials identify the cause of the spread of wildfires in Hawaii. NBC News reported (hidden at the bottom of the article) that Whisker Labs (makers of Ting) provided county-level outage data during Hurricane Milton. In July, Bloomberg reported Ting sensors provided indicators of a major blackout in Spain just hours before the crisis struck.
So, there is a possibility here. Personally, I like knowing that the sensor hasn’t detected any problems. But is Ting an alternative to bringing in an electrician to evaluate your circuits, your breaker panel, and your wiring? Absolutely not.
If you don’t mind spending a couple hundred bucks for peace of mind and some potential security, then do so. If not, Ting ginger candies and Ting Jamaican grape juice both taste good, and both are significantly less expensive. But they don’t come with peace of mind, which is priceless.
Ting Specifications
- Grounded receptacle required
- Provides real-time 24/7 alerts
- Connects via Wi-Fi (2.4 GHz or 5 GHz)
- Requires smart phone (recent Android or iPhone)
- Weight: 5 ounces
- Dimensions: 1.34″D x 2.51″W x 3.96″H
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