Do you have any hints for me on the situation below? What things to buy that integrate particularly well with openHAB for example?
We recently bought a countryside house in northern Europe, far from where we live. It doesn’t see a lot of use during winter. Friends nearby are happy to keep an eye on it, but we’d rather not bother them if not absolutely needed. OpenHAB looks like it could help a lot there:
pellet burner:
warn on low pellet reservoir
warn on full ash tray
monitor temperature
…
heating rules:
monitor heating buffer temperature, …
electric ups:
alarm on loss of mains electricity
…
security:
driveway camera
window and door sensors
…
frost protection if inside temperatures go below 0°C:
alarm
? auto drain water pipes, boile, toilets, … as much as possible
? release anti freeze liquid into toilets, sinks, …
I guess regarding the plumbing automation you want to have, there’s simply no off the shelf solution. You’ll have a lot of things to do by your own hands.
There are automatic valves on the market, i use these: https://jes.gr/en/product-category/actuators/ They are especially good because they have position sensors; there are cheaper valves on the market which doesn’t have them. So your controller actually knows what’s going on; i think this is important because plumbing is very safety-critical thing, even more than electric wiring.
In order to drive them i am using chinese relay boards, controlled by GPIOs. And, of course, all the wiring and programming has to be done by yourself.
I can share my solution, if you’re interested and ready to co-develop, we could work on it together. However i am implementing it as a standalone controller, written in C++. The development is currently on hold, i am up to other stuff, but of course i have plans about OH integration.
What my controller should do is:
Monitoring water supply pressure and temperature
Switching on backup heater if there’s a hot water loss
Rinsing the heater approximately once per month if not in use, or the water inside goes rotten and stinky
Flood detection and protection
These scenarios are developed for city apartment, not for a private house. But we could extend the functionality, perhaps what i have could be a good start for you. I wrote it myself just because there was nothing on the market to base on. There are “leak detection system in a box” kind of products available on the marked, but they are not extensible; they don’t do many other things than leak detection or remote cut off from your smartphone.
Hi! I found them in a local online plumbing shop, they often sell flood protection solutions here. Actually they recommended these valves to me, so i simply tried. And they turned out good, i am happy with the choice.
They also have a position indicator LED, so i’ve got nice blinkenlights in my plumbing box as a bonus
Such gear can also be sold by industrial control systems vendors; some of them sell parts for retail, i have bought sone components from them too, and prices were not too high for a private customer.
