Smart power strips in Home Assistant: Kasa HS300 vs Eve Energy Strip

A desk or TV corner collects things that never need to be on at the same time: monitor, speakers, light bar, game console, the charger for a gadget you forgot you owned. One smart strip puts each of them on its own switch, and Home Assistant decides when they get power.

Choose the Kasa HS300 for six switched outlets with a power reading on each one. Choose the Eve Energy Strip for three well-spaced outlets when you have an iPhone or iPad for setup. If everything in the corner can switch together, put one Shelly Plug US Gen4 in front of the strip you already own.

Specs come from the makers; setup steps follow Home Assistant’s docs.

Pick the strip by the corner it powers

Kasa HS300 is the six-outlet pick for a busy desk or AV shelf. You can control each of the six outlets independently, and Kasa monitors energy use for each connected device. The strip adds three USB charging ports, ETL-certified surge protection and a 15 A, 1,875 W total load rating. Home Assistant switches the six AC outlets, so plug anything you want to automate into those and use the USB ports for chargers.

Eve Energy Strip is the three-outlet pick for an Apple household. Its US model has three generously spaced, 90-degree outlets with buttons on the strip, a 6.3 ft cable, and surge, overcurrent and overvoltage protection, rated 15 A and 1,800 W. Two things decide whether it fits. Eve reports total consumption for the whole strip, not each outlet. And setup needs an iPhone or iPad on a 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi network. Android-only home? Take the Kasa.

Shelly Plug US Gen4 covers the simpler case. If the speakers, light bar and monitor can all go off together, one Shelly Plug US Gen4 (S4PL-00116US) in front of your existing surge strip switches and meters the whole group, up to 15 A and 1,800 W. It speaks Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and Zigbee and is Matter-certified. Comparing single plugs? The smart plug guide has the full lineup.

The three side by side

	Kasa HS300	Eve Energy Strip (US)	Shelly Plug US Gen4
Switched AC outlets	6	3	1
USB ports	3 charging ports	None	None
Power readings	Per outlet	Whole strip	The one outlet
Maker load rating	15 A, 1,875 W total	15 A, 1,800 W	15 A, 1,800 W
Radio	2.4 GHz Wi-Fi	2.4 GHz Wi-Fi (HomeKit)	Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee; Matter-certified
HA integration	TP-Link Smart Home	HomeKit Device	Shelly
HA IoT class	Local Polling	Local Push	Local Push

How Home Assistant talks to each one

Kasa HS300: TP-Link Smart Home. The HS300 is on the supported power-strip list of the official TP-Link Smart Home integration, which runs locally (Local Polling). You get a switch for each outlet, plus power and energy sensors you can add to the Energy dashboard. One quirk to plan around: HA updates the energy readings of a Kasa strip’s outlets every 60 seconds. For “switch the accessories off after five quiet minutes” that is plenty. Some Kasa firmware also needs Third-Party Compatibility switched on in the Kasa app before HA can connect; if HA asks for credentials, use your TP-Link account email and password.

Eve Energy Strip: HomeKit Device. This strip connects over Wi-Fi with HomeKit, so no Thread border router is needed. HA’s HomeKit Device integration pairs with it directly and gets push updates (Local Push). A HomeKit accessory pairs with one controller at a time, so the Apple Home app gets it onto Wi-Fi and then hands it over (steps below).

Shelly Plug US Gen4: Shelly. The Shelly integration is Local Push with no cloud account required. You can also join the plug to a Zigbee network, but the native Wi-Fi route gives HA the most Shelly settings.

The one rule: never cut power to a running computer

Don’t use a strip outlet to hard-switch a NAS, server or desktop PC while it’s running. Shut it down cleanly first, and keep always-on boxes on a UPS. The headless boot and power-loss guide covers getting them back up on their own. The strip is for the accessories: monitors, speakers, lamps, light bars, chargers and indoor holiday lights.

Set up the strip

Kasa HS300

1. Add the strip in the Kasa app, connect it to 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi and name each outlet after what it powers (Monitor, Speakers, Light bar). Those names become your HA entity names.
2. If your app shows Third-Party Compatibility, switch it on.
3. In HA, open Settings → Devices & services. Configure the discovered TP-Link device, or choose Add integration → TP-Link Smart Home and enter the strip’s address.
4. Give the strip a DHCP reservation on your router so its address stays put.

Eve Energy Strip

1. Using an iPhone or iPad on 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi, add the strip in the Apple Home app with its setup code.
2. Once it’s online, remove it from the Apple Home app. Don’t reset it. HA’s docs explain that adding and then removing it leaves the strip on your Wi-Fi and frees it to pair with HA.
3. In HA, open Settings → Devices & services, choose Configure on the discovered HomeKit Device and enter the pairing code.

Eve’s setup notes also ask for DHCP, Bonjour/multicast enabled on the router and access points, and no MAC-address authentication. Powerline adapters are a poor fit for HomeKit Wi-Fi gear.

Shelly Plug US Gen4

1. Connect the plug to Wi-Fi with the Shelly app or its local web page.
2. In HA, configure the discovered Shelly device, or add the integration and enter its address.

Automation: shut the accessories off when the monitor sleeps

This is where per-outlet readings on the HS300 pay off. In the example, Monitor is on one outlet, while Speakers and Light bar sit on two others. When the monitor’s draw stays below its standby level for five minutes, the accessories switch off.

alias: Desk strip - accessories off when the monitor sleeps
triggers:
  - trigger: numeric_state
    entity_id: sensor.monitor_current_consumption
    below: 15
    for:
      minutes: 5
conditions:
  - condition: state
    entity_id:
      - switch.speakers
      - switch.light_bar
    match: any
    state: "on"
actions:
  - action: switch.turn_off
    target:
      entity_id:
        - switch.speakers
        - switch.light_bar
mode: single

Swap in your own entity IDs from the HS300 device page. Set below a few watts above your monitor’s sleeping draw: look at its power sensor with the screen on, then again after it sleeps. The match: any condition means the automation only runs while at least one accessory is still on.

Want them back on in the morning? Add a second automation with the same sensor going above the threshold and switch.turn_on for the accessories.

Test it in two minutes

1. Open the monitor’s power sensor and note its awake and sleeping values. Remember that the HS300 refreshes outlet energy readings every minute, so give it one.
2. Temporarily change minutes: 5 to minutes: 1 and save.
3. Switch Speakers and Light bar on, then put the monitor to sleep.
4. After the delay plus the next reading, both accessories should click off. Check Settings → Automations & scenes → Traces for the path, then restore five minutes.

The short version: six outlets with a power reading on each? Kasa HS300. Three good-looking outlets and an iPhone? Eve Energy Strip. One group that switches as a whole? Shelly Plug US Gen4. More local projects live on the Home Assistant hub.