this post was submitted on 13 Jun 2023
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Home Automation

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Discussion about general home automation ideas and projects, home automation protocols like Z-wave, Zigbee, Matter, etc, and home automation software and hubs like HomeSeer, Home Assistant, OpenHAB, Homey.

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Use excess Solar to run your pool pump (Node-Red & Home Assistant) (blog.grieve.com.au)
submitted 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) by palitu@lemmy.perthchat.org to c/homeautomation@lemmy.world
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I am in the process of building this in my system. I want to add a couple of extra features. such as minimum run time, the ability to run a few minutes each hour over night (for skimming) and some other bits an pieces.

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[–] BathyFan@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I gotta say... Your documentation is really good. You definitely have more experience with node red than myself so I am not sure how one would improve upon your work so far. Plus most of my improvements would probably be a little advanced for the aim of your project as I tend to go down a rabbit hole whenever I automate something lol.

Mostly, my two cents are for if you want to go further towards a smart pump and getting more data into home assistant:

  • Look for a way to track the flow of water through the pump to watch for signs of blockage or pump failure.
  • Look at what options would you have for water quality sampling/intervention (if you do any maintenance for that).
[–] palitu@lemmy.perthchat.org 1 points 1 year ago

i need to say, this is not mine! i actually posted it as i didnt want to lose the page :-/

For pump flow, i would use power draw as a proxy for flow. if the power is really low, it equates to a low flow. I already have them on Athom smart plugs, which have power monitoring. I actually use this to auto-prime my bore pump, which will turn on-off as needed to get the flow through. I'll post it at some point.

I have at atlas scientific wifi pool monitor which does auto-sampling but there is a bunch of maths and a lack of motivation/time to implement! one day maybe!

[–] Bluetreefrog@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago

I did something like this. I buy my electricity at wholesale prices, and the supplier has an API with price predictions, so I used node-red to compare insolation forecasts, and price forecasts to work out what time-blocks to run the pool pump (when solar high, or price low, or cheapest forecast times to achieve a minimum number of hours per day).

Not quite the same as home automation, but there's a home-made renewable energy system community too:

https://lemmy.world/c/hmres

!hmres@lemmy.world

Home Made Renewable Energy Systems