Alexa controlled Hot Water

[OKDave]

Hey guys, I have been on here for awhile. I am always learning so much, thought I would show you all something I just setup. I have a long ranch house, with a tankless water heater. We have had a on command recirc pump for about 7 years. It helps alot, but I thought I would see if I could streamline things.
Dave

 

[OKDave]

So I started researching ways to get a momentary switch controlled by alexa/echo. It occured to me, people might have done this for garage door control. This lead me to this wifi controlled relay. This is different then some available, because you can control, how long the relay latches. The pump just requires a brief connection, I had a momentary decora switch that I have been using (it looks a lot better then the garage door switch that came with the recirc pump)
I used this:
https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B071KFX63R/?tag=atomicindus08-20

 

[OKDave]

My recirc pump is a taco genie, something like this:
https://www.supplyhouse.com/Taco-00...Kt_aeKQlc7IOg2bXSjik4Vy9-nL_OSpkaAqBFEALw_wcB

Once I got the relay connected, I just ask say "Alexa, hot water" as I head to either bath on that side of the house. It works REALLY well.

I can get pics, if need, but it is not much to really see.

Hopefully this helps someone, Dave

 

[OKDave]

One more thing, I do have all my IOT devices on seperate and secure wifi setup. There might be some security concerns with all of these IOT devices, so I setup a seperate network awhile back, that runs all my echo's and other IOT devices.

 

[pmiranda]

I did something similar with a (now unavailable) Wemo Motion switch. Motion detector plugged in in the bathroom and the hot water pump is plugged into the switch.

 

[OKDave]

I actually considered the motion sensor, but for the layout of our house this seemed to make the most sense.

 

[That Guy Scott]

I just did something similar. I used the Smartlife app and have smart switches and outlets throughout the house. I finally paired the the water heater recirculator to Alexa and have a built in timer to shut it off automatically. I had my bbq island setup this way and finally did the water heater.
I’m curious if my propane bill will be lower.

 

[glennm]

I just have my circulation pump connected to an Insteon switch. I ask google for hot water and it turns on the pump. I also have it on a schedule to run the pump at shower time and again at dinner time. I also have the theatre room set to automatically do everything when I watch a movie, pause for a beer and all the lighting changes, smart scenes, etc. It can be a bit of an obsession

 

[laser3kw]

"Alexa, hot water"
(Alexa) "I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that"

.
I'm sorry Dave video clip

 

[infinkc]

Hmm, wonder how much power I am using, my recirc pump is 24/7.

 

[OKDave]

"Alexa, hot water"
(Alexa) "I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that"

.
I'm sorry Dave video clip

Thats Awsome!

 

[Jeepster04]

Hmm, wonder how much power I am using, my recirc pump is 24/7.

I imagine your water heater never shuts off.

 

[American Locomotive]

Neat idea!

...but just having an Alexa at all is a big privacy risk, IMO. You can put all your IOT things on their own network all you want, but Alexa can't do anything without the AWS Cloud - so it's always gotta phone home with your voice command, and then your IOT device has to wait to hear back from Amazon to do anything. Plus if you have an internet outage or AWS goes down (it does happen!) you're out of luck.

I think I'd prefer a passive infrared motion detector coupled with a temp sensor (so if the pipes are already warm, it won't run the pump again whenever I walk into the bathroom)

Hmm, wonder how much power I am using, my recirc pump is 24/7.

It's not so much the pump power (maybe 80 watts, which would be $85-$170 year worth of electricity depending on where you live ), but the all of the heat radiating off your pipes keeping your hot water heater busy.

 

[boatshoes]

I would use a TP-Link wifi outlet HS105, which can pair with a multitude of services, use standalone app, or follow a predefined schedule. They can also link with other Kasa devices so you could have a smart light switch turn on the pump as well.

 

[Jeepster04]

Neat idea!

...but just having an Alexa at all is a big privacy risk, IMO. You can put all your IOT things on their own network all you want, but Alexa can't do anything without the AWS Cloud - so it's always gotta phone home with your voice command, and then your IOT device has to wait to hear back from Amazon to do anything. Plus if you have an internet outage or AWS goes down (it does happen!) you're out of luck.

I think I'd prefer a passive infrared motion detector coupled with a temp sensor (so if the pipes are already warm, it won't run the pump again whenever I walk into the bathroom)


It's not so much the pump power (maybe 80 watts, which would be $85-$170 year worth of electricity depending on where you live ), but the all of the heat radiating off your pipes keeping your hot water heater busy.

I think I like this idea the most. Motion sensor with a temp sensor that wont kick the pump on unless its below a certain temp.

Assuming his water heater is 4500 watts and doesnt kick off, thats $14 a day at the average $0.13 kwh cost.... $5100 a year just so you have hot water at tap.

 

[OKDave]

I hear you about Alexa, I kind of struggled with getting one privacy wise. I think it is all a bit dependent on how you feel about big data. For better or worse I do have one (actually a few), I really only wory about the hackability of all the IOT stuff.
Dave