Suggestions for monitoring water heater pilot light

[TJF1960]

Hello,
 
I am looking for some cost effect ideas for monitoring the pilot light on my water heater. When strong winds are blowing sometimes the pilot goes out. I would like to monitor the pilot light, I already have cat5 run to the water heater with a temp sensor on it from a wc8 board but so far I have come up with 0 ideas on how to implement it however.
 
Thanks for any suggestions.
Tim

 

[mrhappy]

I've seen these sorts of things http://dx.com/p/1-channel-flame-sensor-module-for-arduino-blue-152020 that claim to detect flames, I've never used one but they might work and are cheap enough just to try to see if they do.

 

[jpmargis]

The water heater thermocouple puts out less than 100 millivolts, but you might be able to use the WebControl analog input to read this voltage.  On some water heaters, the thermocouple connections are not accessible, but check your specific model.
 
Depending on how handy you are, I guess you could put in a "monitoring thermocouple".  They are readily available at most home improvement centers.

 

[Tschmidt]

I wouldn't want to tap into the thermocouple for fear of interfering with its operation.
 
Using an IR detector should be easy since the pilot is so much hotter then surrounding area. I assume that is how the unit mrhappy linked to works. The IR detector is feed into the LM339 comparator and the pot sets the threshold.
 
/tom

 

[jpmargis]

And I wouldn't want a chunk of plastic and circuit board inside the flame chamber of my water heater.  Even if it doesn't catch on fire, it's reliability will be very poor.

 

[CAI_Support]

I don't know if this PIR sensor would be able to stay close enough to monitor pilot without being damaged by flame chamber:
ebay item number 321250601225
somehow I can not post URL to thie forum.  If I posted a URL, it will not get to the correct site or item.  Sorry you have to enter the item number on eBay and search for it.

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

Geez, nobody reads our portal! :mellow:
 
The great Michael McSharry wrote an excellent How-To on this subject right here on CocoonTech  (forum thread) .

 

[roussell]

BSR, both of these links seem to point back to this thread...
 

Geez, nobody reads our portal! :mellow:
 
The great Michael McSharry wrote an excellent how-to on this subject right here on CocoonTech (forum thread)!

 

[BraveSirRobbin]

Sorry about that;
 
http://cocoontech.com/forums/page/articles/_/tutorials/home-automation-tutorials/how-to-measure-the-usage-of-a-gas-water-heater-r51
 
http://cocoontech.com/forums/topic/5660-how-to-measure-gas-water-heater-energy-usage/

 

[Madcodger]

I used Michael's flame presence method on the NG water heater in our previous house and it worked great. Now have all electric in new house (and no access to NG!) but it worked well for me there. I did pull it when we sold the house, though, as I didn't want something left in chamber.

 

[Automate]

The water heater thermocouple puts out less than 100 millivolts, but you might be able to use the WebControl analog input to read this voltage.  On some water heaters, the thermocouple connections are not accessible, but check your specific model.

I would be very careful about connecting any non FM approved electronics into the flame safety circuit.   Even through it should only be monitoring the voltage, a failure in the circuit could allow voltage to leak into the flame detect circuit, keeping the gas valve open with no flame.