Water Heater
Make your home
SMARTER
After failure of a thermostat, it was time to put my Shelly 1PM in action and turn the old Water Heater in a smart device.
Main Components
01 / Shelly 1PM
The main component of the project. It is this device that will turn on/off the heater and measure power consumption over time.
04 / ESP 8266
An ESP8266 was installed in order measure and process the pulses from the water flowmeter. It also allows to make wirelessly connect flowmeter to HomeAssistant.
02 / Temperature Sensor
One temperature sensor is connected to Shelly 1PM and measures the temperature of the water inside the water heater.
05 / Water Flowmeter
1/2 inches brass flowmeter is installed at the outlet of the water heater to measure the volumes of water being consumed.
03 / Raspberry Pi 4
A Raspberry Pi 4 with HomeAssistant installed works as the brain of the system. A dashboard allows to easily get access to all the key information.
06 / Water Heater
Old water heater that was subjected to this facelift and became smarter.
Older is now Wiser!
DASHBOARD
Step-by-Step
Buy your Shelly
Go to Shelly.com and buy your Shelly material. For this project, only a Shelly 1PM and the temperature sensors are necessary.
Don't forget to buy the other components (see Components).
Raspberry Pi 4
I am using a Raspberry Pi as the brain of the project. With HomeAssistant, it is possible to integrate all the components in the system and make them interact between themselves.
Make the connections
Check the connections section to better understand what are the required connections to have the project running smoothly.
Dashboard
Dashboard was created using Lovelace cards and picture elements, which are very versatile.
All the key information is shown in the same page.
Make Rules
Every time the temperature drops below a certain setpoint, Shelly turns On the heater and temperature starts to increase. Water consumption profile is also being recorded to teach the system the most probable times the hot water is needed and when to start heating.
Monitor & Start Saving
If you are a geek like me, I am sure you will check the dashboard more than 100 times a day.
But you don't have to look to the data to know that you are now saving money... The bill at the end of the month will talk by itself.