For those that have a septic system, especially one with a pump, we all know that terrible sound that comes from the pump alarm. I've gone though a few iterations of tracking/alarming my pump so at least I might have a warning or an alert to my phone if there is a problem.
I first modified a contact sensor to go along with my pump alarm (more complicated than I had hoped) to go off when the alarm triggered.
Then I have an original AEON HEM v1 monitoring the AC line that runs that pump. It tracks when it turns on/off and how long the pump has been running. Since I know it takes my pump 10 min to empty the tank I have an alarm if it runs for 14 min or more...and that alarm went off last night. Inspection in the dark seems to indicate that a float switch has gone bad. More research today during daylight needs done. If that is the case then that pump would have continued to run at about 1000Watts until probably the pump burned up at some point. Who knows how long that would have taken.
I've looked at adding pump and/or level alarm indication to my septic system a few times. It is a bit of a pain as on mine it is all high voltage - even the bulbs.
So I would either have to do some interposing relays - which I can certainly do, but would take a new box as there is no room in the existing one, or do something like a HEM.
If I out in as new box I would just bring back everything... Might as well install a bunch of relays if I'm doing any...
And HEM are more money than I care to spend on this, and can be very mesh bandwidth intensive - which I don't like.
Anyway, thanks for reminding me that I was going to think this over again.
I did that for my alarm. I bitched about it when I did it but glad it's done now. Used the high volt to trigger a relay that's connected to the contact sensor. However I think the real power is in the HEM monitoring the usage. I wrote apps to trigger virtual switches if 1. the pump runs too long or 2. the pump hasn't run in X time (another indicator of failure BEFORE the float triggers it)
Yeah, pump status would be useful. I don't care about the watts though so would likely just do as a contact sensor too a la run/stop. That is 2 relays max easy peasy.
I don't really either...it was my simple way of determining when the pump is running or not. However I could slightly argue that monitoring the average watts per run might give some hints down the road to problems/clogs/pump failure. To be honest I haven't programmed anything along that road yet. I had some old HEMs and it was a simple use for me...
Let's settle on this...there aren't ANY products out there I'm aware of that solve our goals without some work!
That's true. Watts is useful for a few things. For example, it the pump dies/burns up you won't see that in a contact closure. Of course you will see it soon enough when you get the high level alarm.
Or performance degradation over time, as you point out.
But good point, power usage can be used for things other than run status.
v1 HEMs are about $65 on average on ebay. I've bought two of the three I have that way and they've been in unused condition. True they are chatty so I have them on a separate hub by themselves (Zigbee on that hub, but no other Z-Wave) and that has been very stable.
If you have a second hub that could support them having their own Z-Wave network, it might be worth the small investment. A lot less expensive than the pump. Relay doesn't sound like a bad idea, but the extra protection and consumption data seems useful for this.
Since I'm about to sound something like a salesperson I'll make this disclaimer... I have no connection to IoTaWatt other than being a happy customer.
They are open source, h/w and s/w. Produced by one guy who is very helpful to all comers. They use Wi-Fi and send nothing until you set them up to do so. They have built-in connections for several destinations. I use the InfluxDB option. They store data for a long time when communications are down and catch up when comms are restored. They have a nice web interface for setup, status, and graphing.
I've learned many interesting things about my home by graphing the data in Grafana. I've also set up some SMS notifications to tell me when appliances (washer, dryer, dishwasher) have finished their cycle because my hearing is about | | far away from needing implants and I can't hear the chimes even when in the same room AND with my aids but I digress.
I first got one IoTaWatt to put on my main panel and then added 2 more for subpanels because I found the information so interesting and helpful.
No question. Sounds like a great system. Might be a bit much for just monitoring a single septic pump, but certainly has benefits beyond monitoring a single device.
Well..diagnostics complete. First problem the pump float failed in the run position. So...had I not had an alarm a 1000watt pump would have ran until it died. So who knows how long that pump would have run. Days for sure. It ran for 90 min before I shut off the breaker. Second...the alarm float had ALSO failed. Tested that while it was out. So....I would have had a pump run until failure...then a septic system backup because the alarm float was bad also. For me even if the solution cost $100 it just paid for itself a few times over. Everything back and functioning as normal and alarm system tested!
Going to have to add to a bi-yearly testing schedule to test that alarm float manually.
So yeah... I'm REALLY glad I had setup what I did in regards to this pump.
P.S. Have I said how much I hate working on septic systems? (does that need said?)
That is precisely how i have mine. I have 4 of them and got them on sale years ago in my Smartthings days. Those 4 are the only 4 zwave devices on my "zigbee" hub and have been doing quite well there. If I were to start over I would probably really consider something like the IoTaWatt. Looks to be more flexible.
I also have a sense energy monitor and I have found it to be pretty terrible. Not quite sure how they are still in business.
