z-wave receptacles - what are you using yours for?

Other Devices & Integrations Lighting & Load Control
1

Hi - I’m totally new to home automation and am still figuring out how others are setting up their systems.

I bought one of the Intermatic z-wave receptacle 6-packs on ebay. Now, I’m wondering how people are using their z-wave receptacles. I’ve read about using it to control plug-in lamps. What else?

Thanks!!

2

I have my system in a rental property. I use them to turn off electronics to minimize the Standby/vampire power draw when there are large periods of time when the home is not being used.

3

I have ones for:

  • outdoor landscape lights (added later, no switch).
  • Christmas lights
  • Small fountain
  • Trigger relay for garage door
  • TiVo (older model, needs a hard reboot sometimes)
4

-Fountain pump
-Hot water recirculation pump

5

[quote=“PurdueGuy, post:3, topic:175499”]I have ones for:

  • outdoor landscape lights (added later, no switch).
  • Christmas lights
  • Small fountain
  • Trigger relay for garage door
  • TiVo (older model, needs a hard reboot sometimes)[/quote]

How do you use it for your garage door?

6

http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,5106.0.html
and
http://apps.mios.com/plugin.php?id=2998
and
http://rts-services.com/Vera/Plugin/GarageDoor/

7

http://forum.micasaverde.com/index.php/topic,5106.0.html
and
http://apps.mios.com/plugin.php?id=2998
and
http://rts-services.com/Vera/Plugin/GarageDoor/[/quote]

Oh, way over my head!!

8

Battery chargers (e.g. for power tools).

9

Under cabinet lighting.
Bookshelf and china cabinet lighting.
Painting lights.
Fish tank lights and pumps.

There’s often an outlet, but rarely a switch. Z-Wave receptacles remove that obstacle.

===
By the way, does anyone know of a dual switched receptacle? (Not dual receptacle single switch.)

10

That would be nice. The socket the manufacturer picked for being Z-Wave controlled, is not always the one I need it to be.

11

What I am using mine for:

  • Feeding the cat with a SuperFeeder. (Three times a day, two of which are in the middle of the night so I can get some sleep)…
  • Resetting power to the cat’s Litter Robot once a day. (Maybe twice a month it gets stuck - need to see if I can get a trigger on the error event and reset immediately…)
  • Living Room lamp.
  • A charge station where I only charge my power tools a few hours a week instead of having them always charging.

All of these previously had manual timers attached - nice to have it all in one place…

Two things I want to do, but am not there yet:

  • Powering lizard cages. (Lights + heat.) Would need mutiple switched outlets - some on in the day, some on at night, and some dimmable to control temperature. The all-in-one programmable power strip we have on the cages now is more convienent than any options on the market right now.
  • Triggering Neato Vaccum to run when we set our security alarm to “Away Arm”. Need to figure out a trigger. Not happy to use the on-board Neato scheduler anymore now that I have VERA.
12

I use mine to control my IP camera.

I recently made some changes in my apartment so I could have the camera hanging from the ceiling and a ceiling socket next to it to avoid the cables and have a nice setup.
Nowmy camera has a great view of the whole flat but because of privacy concerns I turn the camera off when me or my girlfriend are at home.

Great way to control the camera without getting a ladder.

-Gio

13

[quote=“kkl, post:4, topic:175499”]-Fountain pump
-Hot water recirculation pump[/quote]

How are you using it for your recirculation pump? And would that set up work for any recirculation pump or would I have to get a special one?

We just had a tankless hot water heater installed, but the lag time to get hot water across the house is a bit long, so the contractor suggested a recirculation pump. But I definitely don’t want it running 24/7.