So summer is finally here and camping season is upon us. What devices have you found to make your RV or camping life easier. Please add links as I hope this thread will turn into a decent guide for those of us that do not want to camp like a caveman.
Fun project i did...
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Our family camps pretty simply and one of our goals is to "unplug" as much as possible...but, I could envision two or three automations that could be nice if we opted to "plug back in."
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Dumb coffee pot + Smart plug + button remote. Able to start coffee before getting out of bed.
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"Smart" Sleep Number bed + Sonos/Google Speaker. Get in to bed and our white noise plays. Right now we just use my phone and a Bluetooth speaker when camping. The white noise really helps in campgrounds.
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A smart thermostat to save running the AC all day when out and about on day trips. Leave it off while gone and only start it up just before arriving back at the RV. Could also use a smart plug, temp sensor, and electric heater for the cooler seasons. Our camper is small enough that a standard space heater can keep it warm... much quieter and cheaper than running the propane furnace.
And maybe something to control the water heater. We only run ours once or maybe twice a day for washing dishes or the occasional shower. Could potentially trigger the water heater to turn on with the coffee pot so you could have a hot shower in the morning but not have to keep it cycling all day/night.
Ooohhh... and maybe one of these...
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It won’t integrate into HE, but I have 2 of these for my propane tanks and they work great:
https://a.co/d/cdEIYUh
When we aren’t camping, I have a contact sensor on the camper door that lets me know via HomeKit and Alexa if the door is opened.
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I haven't looked at the wiring of the RV thermostat yet. Does it wire up the same as a normal thermostat at home?
I think generally, no. Mine is a pretty basic, heat only thermostat. I think a basic battery-powered zigbee unit would work, but i have not confirmed. My A/C control is built into the unit and would not be able to use a thermostat without a lot of hacking.
That said, larger more expensive RVs may have other controls that may be more automation-friendly.
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Look into the Micro-Air Easy Touch RV thermostat. It will do what you want using your smart phone. It does not need a hub.
https://www.micro-air.com/products_easytouch_rv_thermostat_touchscreen.cfm
As for other automation, we have a tankless water heater, so we don't need to automate that. I did add a ShowerMiser to our Cherokee Grey Wolf so I would not be wasting so much water since the shower is at the opposite end of the trailer than the water heater.
The trailer does have the Lippert RV OneControl so I have all the automation I would care to have in the trailer already.
I have automated many of the lights in our RV, but one in particular is giving me problems. The wiring is such that the negative side of the lights are connected to ground, and the positive side is controlled by a switch. I have used ZEN31, using the white channel only. The issue is that the ZEN31 controls the positive, rather than the negative wire. I was able to get the the lights in the other areas so I could redirect the negative from ground to the ZEN31. However, I am unable to get a wire from the bedroom lights back to the location of the current switch. The other limitation is that the device cannot be any larger that a ZEN31. Does anyone have a solution that has a dry contact relay controlled via Hubitat that would fit? Bonus if it can also dim.
