Home Automation

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Home automation is the residential extension of building automation.

It is automation of the home, housework or household activity.

Home automation may include centralized control of lighting, HVAC (heating, ventilation and air conditioning), appliances, security locks of gates and doors and other systems, to provide improved convenience, comfort, energy efficiency and security.

Warning: Working with electricity can result in injury, property damage, or even death if it is not done properly. Please keep this in mind while assisting others. If you are not sure about what you are doing, hire a licensed professional.

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Automate my hot water heater (alien.top)

submitted 1 year ago by tortuga3385@alien.top to c/homeautomation@selfhosted.forum

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I am typically the first one in my house to take a shower and I like hot showers. I have noticed that if I take a shower first, the hot water is not that hot and doesn't last very long. But if others take showers before me and the hot water has to recharge then the hot water is HOT and lasts a long time.

I have a 50 gallon hot water tank.

The only two things I have (besides sinks and showers) that use hot water are a dumb dishwasher and a dumb washing machine.

What I was thinking was to set up an automation in HA to somehow trigger something to use hot water for like 10 minutes in order to get the hot water heater to recharge.

Any ideas?

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[–] Bitwise_Gamgee@alien.top 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

If you have "delay start" functions on your washing machines (dish & clothes), you can either do dishes overnight or clothes overnight as close to 3-4am as possible (assuming you're waking up around 6 or 7).

There is not a great way to "automate" the heating of water in a traditional water heater and it would be a safety hazard to do so.

The only other good option is an inline electric water heater, but the cost of that will outweigh anything else.

If you're eager to spend money on this, I'd look into newer appliances that you can set to run at a certain time of day if there is absolutely no functionality available.

[–] lakemalcom10@lemm.ee 1 points 1 year ago

This should be higher. No wasted water, low tech, and no cost. If the water heater has trouble retaining heat in the water then it definitely seems like an issue with the water heater itself, but this approach will reliably trigger a larger batch of fully reheated water at just the right time. Plus, if the water heater is electric then you're even use electricity at non peak hours.