Jump to content

Recommended Posts

Posted

Hi all,

 

This is a only a temporary solution until my heat pump is completely installed.

 

I'd like to install some way of controlling the timing of the immersion heater independent of the heat pump. I was thinking something similar to my Taco smart plug that I use to heat my garden office with a 2kw electric heater that is timed to come  on and off as I need it and also using alexa.

 

I realise that they need to be capable of 3 kw for the immersion but they are only rated to 2990 . What are my options or would they be ok ? 

 

Posted

I use my Eddi with remotely driven boosts from my RPi: the heat pump doesn't get a look in.  (I also limit the grid demand while boosting to 2kW.)  I appreciate that this may not be at all what you are after of course!)  All this to do smarter and less frequent pasteurisation, basically only when the grid is relatively green.

Posted
1 hour ago, Canski said:

controlling the timing of the immersion heater

Just get a basic immersion timer then, Screwfix, Toolstation etc all sell them 

  • Like 1
Posted

You shouldn't use a typical smart plug.  Some might be nominally rated at 3kW at 240VAC they can rapidly heat up especially when powered up for a few hours.  I control my 3×immersions (2 in the UVC and one in a Willis heating my UFH) by decent din-mounted contactors in the MCU.  These are rated at 20A at 240VAC for a straight resistive load.  These have a design life of 50,000 cycles.  Their coils are driven at 24 VDC (at 10s mA) by an IoT relay board controlled by my HomeAssistant system.  I've done posts on this if you want know more.

 

My TL;DR is that it can be done but you need to know what you are doing to avoid the fire risks.

  • Like 1
Posted (edited)
12 minutes ago, TerryE said:

Some might be nominally rated at 3kW at 240VAC they can rapidly heat up especially when powered up for a few hours

The first timer I bought, cheap on eBay, did not last long. It did fail safe though.

I spent an hour in B&Q looking at them, then bought the above cheaper online.

Edited by SteamyTea
  • Like 1

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...