Immersion heaters - remote setting?

[Timothy Murphy]

I'd like to be able to switch on/off my immersion heater by computer. Is that possible to set up in any reasonably simple way?

[Tim S]

Timothy Murphy coughed up some electrons that declared:

X10 via a 13A Socket X10 receiver and RS232 X10 interface to the PC is one solution - google X10 should bring up a list of products.

Radio control is getting more popular but I can't yet point you to a specific product, which doesn't mean there aren't any, just that I've never looked very hard.

Or, if you totally want to DIY it, a DIN rail contactor local to the heater circuit to provide solid isolation from the mains (keep the mains and control wiring as far apart as possible and use double insulated cable for the control wires). Drive the coil from a hard wired interface to your PC, which at its simplest could be a driver circuit from one of the lines on the parallel port or even a handshake line on the RS232 port, depending on what's easiest to flip from a program, and a line that once flipped stays flipped.

A more elegant but more expensive variant on the above would be to buy a USB or PCI digital IO board to control the contactor, but beware the industrial ones cost a bomb.

If doing direct drive to a contactor, it would be advisable to build some inherent time damping into the driver circuit so that if the PC goes berserk it doesn't buzz the contactor which is going to burn things out.

Just some ideas...

Cheers

Tim

[Martin Pentreath]

As a variant on this, someone needs to produce a box which links into a DECT cordless phone system and which you can dial into from your mobile (or any other phone) to turn the heating on remotely. Ideally the box should also be a wireless timer/thermostat like the Honeywell CM67. I live in hope.

[BigWallop]

I'm sure there is a UK Version, but this might help with the concept part

[tony sayer]

In article , Martin Pentreath scribeth thus

SD2 autodialler from Cooper security has a possibility that you can phone in, set number of rings to answer, enter access code then press #3 or whatever and you can toggle things on and off;!...

As well as it dialling you if the temp falls too low, and thats built in as is a microphone so you can hear what's going on;!...

[Lobster]

You might have a look at this kit, as sold in B&Q:

't actually know if it can be controlled by a computer or not; certainly by text message though.

By the way, you don't say: what are you after here, the ability to program your heating settings from a PC in the same house, or (as I suspect) remotely over the internet?

David

[Harry Bloomfield]

Timothy Murphy formulated the question :

For that, you probably need to look at X10. However - Aldi currently have some remote control 13A mains plug-ins - a little like a plug in mains timer. 4 of these plus a remote control which has separate on and off for each of the four including a master on and off with a range of about 40m for the grand sum of £13 including batteries for the remote.

It would be an absolute doddle to use the parallel port of a PC to operate a certain IC (who's number I forget), which acts as a switch. The switch of the IC wired across the on /off buttons, would then be able to switch the immersion heater and should you need to, three other items as well.

I bought one of these kits yesterday, to replace one we bought several years ago. The problem with that was that it used just one button for both on and off. If you could not see the response of what you were switching, it left you rather guessing at its status - this one doesn't.

I use it for turning the router on and off, for the rare occasions when it locks up - which is located way up in the loft; for turning my network printer on/off up on the first floor; the garden and drive security lighting - which is again on the first floor and at Christmas the Christmas lights which are fed from the summer house at the far end of the garden.

[tony sayer]

In article , Harry Bloomfield scribeth thus

this is a PC/web based gubbins that will turn up to 8 IIRC things on and off over the net and measure 4 or so inputs 0-5 volts and vice versa...

theres another company that might be worth a look....

[Timothy Murphy]

I'd like to be able to switch the immersion heater on from a remote computer.

But what I was thinking of more than that was the possibility of setting up a reasonably complicated "timetable" for the heater. I actually have a Grassun bath timer on the immersion heater circuit, but I find it quite hard to set, and rather inflexible - eg, I'd like to put the heater for longer at the weekends.

[BigWallop]

Would it be easier with one of these

?

[Timothy Murphy]

?

It looks a bit simpler than my "bath timer", but no more flexible, eg it does not seem possible to set a different weekend program.

[BigWallop]

> ?

There is always this one

does have a Weekend Only facility.

Still a lot cheaper than home automation systems.

[Grimly Curmudgeon]

We were somewhere around Barstow, on the edge of the desert, when the drugs began to take hold. I remember Timothy Murphy saying something like:

Programmable central heating controller, but operating a contactor. Easy.