I have a recirc pump in my house for hot water. Currently the pump runs on a timer to save energy when we don’t need instant hot water. But the timer doesn’t match real life very well. Sometimes we are up earlier or later than the pump and we end up wasting water waiting for the hot water. I would like to avoid that with the current drought. So what I would like are some reasonable push button or some sort of sensor that can be placed in various locations around the house (bathrooms, kitchen) which when activated run the pump for a certain period of time, perhaps 5 minutes or so. Motion sensors may or may not be desirable; my concern is that someone randomly wanders through the kitchen frequently without needing hot water, so I don’t want the pump on for that. And I definitely don’t want everyone in the house running around with a phone trying to turn on the pump. This needs to be some sort of dedicated push button switch.
Do you have any suggestions? Is this a good case for Vera? If so, what would you use for the push button switches to activate it? Or would the Wemo or something else fit this better? Currently I have no other need for the Vera, but I could eventually find uses. Of course I want the cost to remain reasonable.
thanks
Deciding how to trigger is the issue.
I do use Motion to turn on my Hot Water circulation pump.
Motion in Bathrooms and Kitchen … and I detect if my laundry room light is turned on.
I only have rain water … wasting it can be a problem … we are also in a drought in Central Texas.
I do not want people letting water run down the drain while waiting for hot water!
I am actually waiting for a Z-Wave temp sensor (can be attached to return pipe) to be available in US.
At that time I can turn of the pump if the return line returns warm. My Hot Water and Return line are insulated.
Of course I use PLEG/PLC plugins to manage the logic.
You can setup PLEG to NOT reset the timer if multiple motions come in while the Pump is still running!
So the fist motion turns it on and the timer begins.
[quote=“jswim788, post:1, topic:187383”]I have a recirc pump in my house for hot water. Currently the pump runs on a timer to save energy when we don’t need instant hot water. But the timer doesn’t match real life very well. Sometimes we are up earlier or later than the pump and we end up wasting water waiting for the hot water. I would like to avoid that with the current drought. So what I would like are some reasonable push button or some sort of sensor that can be placed in various locations around the house (bathrooms, kitchen) which when activated run the pump for a certain period of time, perhaps 5 minutes or so. Motion sensors may or may not be desirable; my concern is that someone randomly wanders through the kitchen frequently without needing hot water, so I don’t want the pump on for that. And I definitely don’t want everyone in the house running around with a phone trying to turn on the pump. This needs to be some sort of dedicated push button switch.
Do you have any suggestions? Is this a good case for Vera? If so, what would you use for the push button switches to activate it? Or would the Wemo or something else fit this better? Currently I have no other need for the Vera, but I could eventually find uses. Of course I want the cost to remain reasonable.
thanks[/quote]
Vera is supposed to be home automation. Adding push buttons next to ever water faucet doesn’t seem like much of a home automation.
Also How long does it take the for the water to circulate and get warm? If you walk to the faucet and press the button whats the wait time? Seems like a bad practice.
In this case I would probley activate on motion and run for a few min. If you don’t end up using water you wasted a bit of electricity but no water. This is better then your timer solution but still not 100%.
If that doesn’t work you can install push buttons where ever you want. There are a few different ways to do this.
Z-wave has a few different remotes such as the minimote. These are battery operated and wireless and can be mounted to the wall easy. So this might be your best solution if you want z-wave.
You can also use any open close circut wired to a z-wave door/window sensor for a more professional look. So say a door bell or like switch.
And if you have high voltage near by you can add a scene controller (light switch looking device) that can send a signal back.
Really all of this seems like to much for only turning on a pump, but I suspect when you have a vera you will use it for other things. If you only want to complete you above task something other then a vera would be better suited.
Once the water gets warm, I would expect that there would not be much of a wait the next time you need it, so question is how often do you need it to run? First thing in the morning based on motion near bedroom? Perhaps every 2-3 hours during the day when home? Perhaps when you return home? You could also measure the temp of the pipe at the end of the run and use that as control for the pump to run when under a certain temp when you are home.
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[quote=“Grwebster, post:4, topic:187383”]Once the water gets warm, I would expect that there would not be much of a wait the next time you need it, so question is how often do you need it to run? First thing in the morning based on motion near bedroom? Perhaps every 2-3 hours during the day when home? Perhaps when you return home? You could also measure the temp of the pipe at the end of the run and use that as control for the pump to run when under a certain temp when you are home.
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Water warm where? I assume you mean in the tank. But then you need to pump it threw all the pipes in the house. And I don’t think the pipes in the house are going to stay warm for a few hours (2-3 hours as you say).
Depends on how warm you need it and the insulation used. First thing in the morning I have a long wait, but usage in the household keeps it pretty good throughout the day. No circulation pump at my house.
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