EcoRenovator - View Single Post - A design chalange, build a smart water heater timer.

Ryland · 05-07-10, 07:54 AM

From talking to people about water heater timers it seems like people biggest issue is figuring out how to program it so they don't get stuck with cold water and that it either resets or stays set after a power outage.
So what I'm wondering is if anyone with knolage of off the shelf parts thinks that a smart water heater timer could be built, it would need some sort of "brain" and that is the part that I don't know about, then it would need a flow meter on the output side of the water heater, a heavy relay to turn the water heater on and off, maybe a thermostat in the tank and a 7 day clock, it seems like a pretty short list of parts.
The idea that I have is to have it programed to run full on for the first week, then after "seeing" your water usage start cutting out times that water is being heated, it would need to track water use over time so if your needs changed it would adjust to those needs, it seems like having a "visiting guest" button would be a good idea as well, something that would leave it on and heating water just a bit longer for when extra people were in the house.
Anyone know of what should be used as the brain for something like this? it seems like there are devices out there that can do it, I'm just not sure what they can do or what they are called, or how to work with them.

05-07-10, 07:54 AM	#1
Ryland Master EcoRenovator Join Date: Mar 2009 Location: Western Wisconsin. Posts: 913 Thanks: 127 Thanked 82 Times in 71 Posts	A design chalange, build a smart water heater timer. From talking to people about water heater timers it seems like people biggest issue is figuring out how to program it so they don't get stuck with cold water and that it either resets or stays set after a power outage. So what I'm wondering is if anyone with knolage of off the shelf parts thinks that a smart water heater timer could be built, it would need some sort of "brain" and that is the part that I don't know about, then it would need a flow meter on the output side of the water heater, a heavy relay to turn the water heater on and off, maybe a thermostat in the tank and a 7 day clock, it seems like a pretty short list of parts. The idea that I have is to have it programed to run full on for the first week, then after "seeing" your water usage start cutting out times that water is being heated, it would need to track water use over time so if your needs changed it would adjust to those needs, it seems like having a "visiting guest" button would be a good idea as well, something that would leave it on and heating water just a bit longer for when extra people were in the house. Anyone know of what should be used as the brain for something like this? it seems like there are devices out there that can do it, I'm just not sure what they can do or what they are called, or how to work with them.