Securifi Community Forum
Sensors and Home Automation => Home automation => Topic started by: Dudeness30 on May 04, 2015, 06:58:08 pm
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I have a actuated ball valve that I want to use for whole house shut off. I was going to use a ZWN-RSM1S z wave relay to activate it. Can I activate any device I want using the securifi flood sensor as the trigger?
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Any device that could be triggered in the Rules could be activated. I do not know about that specific relay myself. Anyone else have one and is it in the Rules section?
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Here's a pic where I'm starting with this project. My project box may be a little big. There will be push button overrides and manual as well. Led lights to indicate open or closed at a glance. Any input or thought?
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Here's a pic where I'm starting with this project. My project box may be a little big. There will be push button overrides and manual as well. Led lights to indicate open or closed at a glance. Any input or thought?
I am VERY interested about your project. Are you going to use it to control the water next to the meter (sprinkler+whole house) or just the water inlet at the home?
Could you please share your shutoff valve part#, pricing, and where u got it from. The z-wave turnkey solution that I find in the net is almost half a grand. I believe it can be done cheaper (DIY). I have some non z-wave relay and I can easily combine it with another spare z-wave appliance module to control the actuator valve...
Please share with us whatever you end up doing. TIA.
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I'm interested in some of this information as well, as this is on my long-term to-do list.
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I just ordered a monoprice z wave relay to explore and a smaller project box too. I will hopefully be doing this soon. At first I wanted to house the z wave relay in the valve cover, but there isn't much room. I already have this actuated ball valve so I will continue with it.
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So I got the Monoprice Z-wave relay which seems great. It's small and has a SPDT dry contact relay. Here are some pics. The valve I chose cost me $257.90 shipped from S&K Automation, and Monoprice relay 11989 for $32.00 shipped. The valve is 3/4" NPT All stainless. I am not sure on LED indicators or buttons yet, but here's what I got so far.
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So I can fit the z wave relay in the casing, but I may need some smaller LED indicators. I put on a push button switch to manually activate the z wave relay also. So far so good.
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Is this (http://low.es/1AvbvVX)similar to what you are doing ?
It seems to be a zigbee device. Does anyone know if Almond+ supports this ?
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It is similar, I'm just using a more industrial valve. WaterCop also make a z wave one that may would with the Almond plus, since the zigbee one from lowes probably won't work with the A+. I don't see the perfect valve for me out there, so I decided to create one. Is what would be cool is if I could reprogram the monoprice relay to be recognized as a water valve and show open/close.
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Here is my first version of a z wave water valve. I got some really small LEDs and connected them to the aux position switches. Can be opened/closed by z wave, or the button, or the manual knob.
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I have had this valve installed for a week now, it works well. Just wanted to share.
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That is awesome. I would love to have a couple valves I could use... But they are just too expensive. One for the house is the easy one, but I would love to add a couple to my marine aquarium for flow changes. That gets pricey (saltwater resistance and at least 4 of them).
How often do you have it switching?
I could see someone using a 2-3 part system with this for a cottage/vacation home. When they leave it turns off the water (just in case). In winter it also turns on a heat cable to keep the initial pipe from freezing. If you had a second valve you could hook it to a drain and let it automatically drain all the pipes once the main is closed. Then it closes up before the main opens again (make that a rule that it must be closed before main opens).
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Right now it only closes if a flood sensor is tripped, but I will make a rule to cycle once in a while to exercise the valve. This valve is expensive, but still cheaper than a ready made valve. I use these in water systems that cycle repeatedly all day everyday and they hold up. Now I can shut off the water when my kids take too long in the shower lol. Or how about when your changing a faucet or other plumbing in the house, just close and open from my phone, I like it. The main reason is for flood protection.
I`m not sure what kind of flow system you need for your aquariums, but sounds like a neat project, maybe plastic valves for that.
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Valves for the aquarium need to be pretty tough. Plastic probably would not hold up to the high number of cycles a day. Probably have to go with stainless steel I think. That would be for a system diverting water that gets returned to the tank by my main pump. There are 4 1" returns coming back to the display and it would be nice if I could cycle them a bit so the flow is a little more random and "natural" for the fish. Right now I only have one electronic valve in the whole thing that controls whether water enters a holding tank or not. I need to install a bunch more sensors around that (float switches mostly but a couple temperature switches as well) and put in a small arduino controller I made to control that section as a top-off (when the tank's water gets too low it will add more, when the storage gets low it will add more too it, etc...).
Controlling the house water would be very handy for projects. I did not even think of that despite remodeling 2 bathrooms neither of which had ANY shutoff valves in them before I added them. Not having to go down to the basement, especially with the drain option to empty the pipes, that would be nice.
That does look like a beefy valve so I would bet it would hold up just fine. Cycling it on a regular basis is a good idea also. Just to keep everything loose and so you know it will work when you need it to.
Any next ideas you are working on?
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I am trying to picture your marine set up. Would a 5 port ball valve work? See pic. It has a port on the 4 sides and the bottom.
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Actually... that would be pretty close. The return pump outputs using a 1.5" PVC pipe... but I quickly split that in 2... Then further along (after it has passed through a wall and is directly behind the tank) I split it again. So if I wanted to put this in my current setup easier it would probably need to have two 3 port valves...
One problem though with the 5 port. That valve only lets one output at a time work, correct? Not sure if I would want that constantly (that would be a LOT of flow and may damage things if it holds for an extended period of time). So having the two 3 ports would keep the flow slightly more reasonable (especially if they were opposing). Optimum solution would still allow controlling each port individually.
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Ok, 4 valves are best, so I would probably start by buying 4 stainless ball valves with the actuator mount on them. Just the 1" ball valves are not too expensive and you can get the layout part done. Then one by one purchase actuators. You could scout eBay for good deals when they pop up. Sounds like a fun project.
Another project I did recently is made a zwave garden watering valve with cheap stuff from Amazon. I will make a new post on that in case someone is interested.