Good morning.
I’m in the planning stages of helping a friend with an automation.
He has a pool with 2 pumps. 2 valves and a heater.
The intent is to automate the 2 pumps and add freeze control. The stretch goal is to add valve actuation ( between spa and pool modes ) and perhaps get on off control on his heater
I’ve picked up a c7 hub and 2 jasco 40 amp relays. The pumps are single speed so getting on off / scheduling control should be relatively easy.
Based on some other posts I picked up a homeseer mains powered multi sensor. Figured mains powered vs battery would be a benefit. I’ve tested it snd I can have temp reported back every minute.
So pretty certain I can trigger the pumps on when temps drop below or near freezing.
The valve actuators seem pretty simple. 3 wire 24 v ac. Use a zen 16 to control which side of the actuator to send the 24v to One side for open. The other side for close.
Now onto the heater. The heater does have a fireman’s switch on it. So any relay that closes the switch would work to call for heat. Would need a temp sensor on the flow line somewhere. I think the fibaro smart plant can do a wired temp probe. Or perhaps even more then one. Just wondering if anyone knows of a good reliable probe that I can put in a flow line ( drill hole. Insert probe , seal hole with silicone ). Also wondering if anyone knows of a good hard wired temp sensor that can take a probe.
I’m sure there will be some logic needed for the hot tub but seems straight forward. (Dan-Os s last words ).
I used KMtronic and Denkovi web relays for contact automation, coupled with KMtronic web temperature (4) sensors to maintain pool temps ingress,egress and so on. It won't stop there, now I'm dosing chlorine, auto heating (NGas+ Solar Water), automated pool light, pool low, level and flood water sensors with auto fill. Wireline or ethernet is the only way to go in controlling contacts for Pools\HotTubs. I don't like ZWAVE or Zigbee it will miss and be inconsistent, not dependable. WiFi is most likely ok to use, if you have a good AP coverage.
Most pool pumps use a contact automation adapter, like Pentair (4 speeds). No need to turn power on and off and worry about over voltage on 220, just the contact speeds.
I use a Fibaro Implant and temp probe hangning 1/2 way down the inside of the pool wall. I control my solar heater pump and pool filter pump A/C directly through Aeotec 7 Z-Wave switches and a few Webcore pistons based on outside temp/pool temp/Lux and time of year.
I finally settled on an ecowitt sensor using your drivers (or the drivers you took over). Battery operated. Remote probe. All integrations local. I just monitor and alert, though. I don't try to control it. The ecowitt integration works great and I have a bunch of their soil meters as well.
My pool is 1M from my back garage so I just put the Fibaro in there. It's still in an enclosure as it has a power supply as well. I ordered a 3M probe so it can reach.
I’ve ordered a fibaro implant and some temp
Probes. Apparently you can connect up to 6….so when all the gear arrives I’m going to set it up on a new hub and get it all running smooth with some simulated loads. I won’t want to tear into my friends pool system till I’m sure it’s all sussed out!
Thanks.
Mac.
If I ever get 6 pools I’m pretty certain I’d be paying someone to do all this work!
And sadly I didn’t win that 2 billion power ball….so seems like I’ll have to figure this out for a while longer
