What appliances do you monitor

[bsnedek]

Hi BSR,
You really get around. I have followed some of your posts on the homeseer forum. Firtha and I do alot of emailing back and forth. Anyway I'm glad to find this site. It exercises my brain, and its nice to find other people with a technical sense. The circuit I am using for my pump is a modified motion detector like the eagle. I removed the light sensor added a transistor acouple of resistors and a zener diode.
Firtha gets the credit for this one. I have also built them using a compator I got the schmos from www.discoverircuits.com

 

[WayneW]

What is a Peter Anderson kit?

http://www.phanderson.com/

 

[DavidL]

Ah yes, rereading your post you did say well pump. Sorry! Guess there have been so many threads on sump pumps I read right past it.

So, back to the well pump...If your house was on "vacation mode" and therefore no water was expected to be used, I can see how you could monitor the pump and if it turns on regularily, that there might be a leak. You could then have HS software shut down the pump relay (low voltage side).

What software were you thinking to monitor and average usage? I think MSCTemp / Control (HS plugins) could do so.

 

[bsnedek]

Hi DavidL,
I am currently saving all of my data on a SQL server. I run acouple of stored procdures that avarage the data and pull the data in an excel spread sheet. I never thought of using a homeseer plugin. Interesting idea.. I just worry about over tasking Homeseer and missing a trigger. I do have an event that will email me at my office if the pump runs for more the 5min. with no irrrigation on. This also tells me if the sprinkler valves have cycled correctly, as Homeseer controls them as well.

Ta Da
Brad

 

[electron]

Well, I ran into some issues with my washer sensor generating some false positives, so as suggested by Guy, I added a 4.7k resistor, and this thing works perfectly, I don't even have to enable the "don't retrigger in xxx seconds" setting. I would strongly recommend this method to everyone who wants to monitor an appliance which uses a light as a status indicator.

 

[smee]

Well, I ran into some issues with my washer sensor generating some false positives, so as suggested by Guy, I added a 4.7k resistor, and this thing works perfectly, I don't even have to enable the "don't retrigger in xxx seconds" setting. I would strongly recommend this method to everyone who wants to monitor an appliance which uses a light as a status indicator.

How to?

 

[electron]

I was considering doing one, but I really didn't want to rip my sensor off the washer machine (for some detailed pictures), but I am still thinking about it tho.

 

[smee]

I think you can start with a description and a simple schematic. I think this is your current configuration:

 

[electron]

That looks right, I will try to put something together, thanks!

 

[jwilson56]

BSR, I found this one:

http://jameco.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servle...roductId=120573

which detects visible light. There is not much choice for visible light phototransistors but this one looks good, with a narrow detection angle and lens. The nice thing about this one is that it has a base terminal available, allowing you increase its sensitivity if needed by putting a high value resistor between the base and the supply voltage to forward bias the transistor'a B-E junction somewhat, needing less light to trigger it fully on. Using the base this way would require an external +5v supply but its nice to have the option if the triggering LED or pilot light is not powerful enough. You would need to experiment to be sure.

Did anyone play with this and have any luck into an Ocelot? Also the link seems to be bad now. Any other photodarlington for visible light been found that works.

I used to use Light Activated SCR's in the late 70's that were cheap and worked great. Can't seem to find them around anymore either.

John

 

[SethP]

How do yoyu monitor the HVAC activity? What specific sensors and how do you connect them? I'm currently trying to figure out how to monitor two furnaces and 6 thermostats. I've written some software for 1-wire, so I'd like to stick with that. I just can't find any easy way to connect sensors, so I ordered a current transformer to try on the thermostat relay line, and a hall effect sensor to try on the relays themselves.

Thanks!

Seth

I have a standalone program that logs all HVAC activity: HP compressor on, reversing valve, defrost, electric heat, oil heat, high electric rate, fan. I also log the inside and outside temperatures every half hour. This uses whats known as a Peter Anderson kit which consists of a PIC that reads Dallas 1 wire sensors and is interrogated by a serial port by my logging program.

 

[MrGibbage]

I use my elk as a watchdog to check up on my HA/HTPC. I put a relay off of one of the 5v molex connectors (hot side), and tied the cold side to a zone on my elk. Then I have another relay tied across the power switch. I check the computer every two minutes to see if it is running. If it's not, close the second relay for a second and start her up!

 

[mthurs27]

for now:
dryer using a magnetic reed switch

very soon (in less than a week or so):
water softener + salt tank
washer (current sensor)

near future:
sump pump
freezers
hvac
oven

Dan, I know this post if from a long time ago, but what type of reed switch did you use for your dryer monitoring? I'm having trouble with my setup as the drum is spinning too fast for the reed switch to detect it.

Thanks...

 

[electron]

It's a regular door magnet, but my dryer is 10 years old or so, maybe it's slower than newer models. Maybe you could swap out the magnet itself with a rare earth magnet?

 

[Dave X10]

I've been monitoring the (On/Off) status of my living room TV. I am using an off-the-shelf TV tricklesaver (I bought from SmartHome). Whereas the tricklesaver normally turns On or Off the TV accessories when a TV is turned On or Off... I plugged in an old wallwart (12V AC I think) which the tricklesaver controls based on the status of the TV. I then connected the wallwart to a PowerFlash Module (X10).

I am not sure... if my cell phone counts as an appliance. But I have also recently been monitoring the status of my cell phone. Using a BlueTooth dongle and new software called BlueWatch... my HA PC can tell if I am at home or not. I am a big fan of BlueWatch but I have NO vested interest in it.. I even paid for my copy ($19 ?). That mixed with keeping track of the wifes car allows me to automaticlly increase video recording and computer voice warning when we aren't home.