I see lots of conversations from quite a while back. Trying to see if anyone has come up with a solution for fireplaces?
What I have - a gas fireplace, with a single rocker switch in the box. No power in the box, and it's a 2 wire connection to the fireplace. You close the circuit, and the fireplace turns on. you open the circuit, and it turns off.
Want to be able to automate that, as well as retain manual control. Need battery power, if I'm simply going to replace the switch. Would rather not tear into the fireplace itself and mess with mains powered relays, etc.
Thoughts? Zigbee preferred.
This would be the easiset option.
But I'd think twice about automating a fireplace -- it could go very wrong if the automation somehow kicks in when it's not supposed to. If you proceed, I'd definitely build in a couple/few layers of safety checks (notification when turned on, auto-off after X time, etc).
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There are a couple ways to do this… depending on whether you can pull wire from under the fireplace up into the switch box. When I built my house, I set one fireplace up with a switch box with 120V line and load cables into it, and just installed a regular zwave switch in the box. The load cables go down to the wiring section of the fireplace and control the coil on a RIB relay. The rib relay NO and C are wired to the two low voltage fireplace wires.
The other fireplace I did without a wall switch. I just wired an isolated contact closure (eg. Zen17) - powered from the 120v available in the fireplace wiring compartment and tied the NO and C to the fireplace control wires. I control that externally with a double tap of a switch closer to the couch. With this approach, you can then take your existing switch wiring which you disconnected from the fireplace and tie it to the switch terminals on the Zen17.
This is how I would do it as well. ZEN16 or ZEN17, or something similar. It does require power under the unit though. The wires going to your wall switch is probably a low voltage bell wire and it should run to the fireplace valve cavity and connect to the valve terminals.
Do you have power under the fireplace? You would have to if there is a fan, but if no fan then it may not have any power.
If no power then I think the option @aaiyar gave might be your best bet.
Exactly. Ive built more than a few houses and every gas fireplace I’ve seen (in the states at least) has power underneath and the control wires going to the switch just close a set of dry contacts.
This might work:
It works with any smart plug. You need the Skytech controller too. Only downside is that you become limited to using the smart plug to control the fireplace as the controls don't know each other's status.
I like it better than the old remote as I have an auto timer to turn the fireplace off after 3 hours or everyone leaving and I get notices when the fireplace is turned on or off. We control the smart switch by voice.
Depends on how old, the really old ones that use a thermopile and dont come with a blower do not need any power. The switch contact is powered by the thermopile millivolts. Some builders would not wire any power up to the jbox underneath in this case.
Maybe 10 years ago but not anymore. Now they often either have wireless remotes or custom wall switches with some other low voltage signaling. A lot of times you can still do the very basic 2 wire contact but hardly anyone uses it anymore. I serviced fireplaces for about 10 years.
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Yup. My house had a wood fireplace, converted to a log-assist, converted to a gas. No blower.
Perhaps it depends on locale. Around here, the 2-wire low voltage switch is still required - as a shutoff - I’m guessing in the event someone can’t find the remote and needs to kill the fireplace. But you’re right - it depends on the fireplace. I’m assuming builder grade here.
Its not required in any code standard that I have ever heard of, but the inspectors do like to make up their own creative interpretations all the time. Unless your local code has it explicitly added for gas fireplaces. Even so, if the fireplace was activated by the remote there is a high chance the wall switch is wired in such a way that it wont turn it off at that point. Usually they are setup for "Any turns On" and "All Off to turn off". You would shut it off via the breaker or gas shut off (may need to shut main). The only required shut off is an accessible gas shut off for service purposes, not meant for emergency use. Emergency you run out of your house and call 911.
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https://a.co/d/i0qWahM
This is what I use and it works well. Battery life about 4-6 months in winter. Voice activated through HE/Alexa.
