Hi everyone, a reminder to all PowerShaper Flex participants that we have a webinar tomorrow at 1pm on Zoom. We’ll be debriefing on our latest switch-off and running a tutorial on integrating your smart appliances into your HEMS. Check your inboxes for our newsletter from 9th November containing more information and let us know if you have any questions. Look forward to seeing you there!
I’m interested in trying to complete a task that I started with Matt’s help in August - that I’m still stuck on. I want to be able to control the switching on and off of my immersion heater according to the time of day and the temperature of the immersion heater. I have bought a Shelly 1PM - (wifi Relay switch with power lettering and the Shelly 1PM Temperature Add-on with 3 DS18B20 temperature sensors. I need help in getting them set-up (hardware) and creating the automation that I need to use in Home Assistant (and/or connecting an existing automation).
Hopefully we can go through this tomorrow?
Peter
I think I must be missing something here, Peter, but doesn’t the thermostat on the immersion heater deal with the temperature side of it, so all you need is an on/off time schedule? Perhaps you want something more sophisticated than that, but that works for us, so all our hot water is produced on our night-time Economy7 rate, between 5 and 6:30 am. We just have to watch out for any Powershaper DSR events scheduled for that time. We have the Shelly EM which is part of the Powershaper offering, and I seem to have set up the schedule directly on the Shelly EM rather than via Home Assistant on our HEMS (or on the CoFy box, as I think it is now being called).
Aah, you are perhaps wanting to integrate with your solar panels, so if your DHW tank is warm enough for your early use, but not fully heated, say, in the morning, after a prior sunny day, and more sun is expected that day, then you don’t want to use grid power to top it up but would prefer to wait for your solar panels to provide that extra energy.
@Paul_Hadfield When my Tepeo ZEB Thermal Storage Electric Boiler is not on, I want to heat up my hot water cylinder (HWC) - early evening - up to 48 degrees C using cheap electricity stored in my Home battery or my EV battery using the immersion heater of the HWC - if my Solar Thermal panels have not heated up the HWC to that temperature during the day. (Note I will still heat up the HWC to 60 degrees C once a week.)
I will need to have this available to work for a least 8 months in the year when the ZEB is not working and its a dull day. Currently, I have to manually switch it on - through the Home Assistant Dashboard (see below) - that switches on the Relay Unit (supplied by Powershaper) connected to the immersion switch.
Hi Peter, unfortunately I don’t think we will be able to go through this today and @matt isn’t able to make the webinar today, but this is really useful documentation for us to look into about how we might be able to make this work.
You might also find some useful stuff on the Home Assistant Community.
It would be helpful if you could repeat links such as the one to this webinar in a message like this about it. Extensive searching of my email system shows no sign of the newsletter with the links to this event I am afraid, and it seems I failed to register for it after all, but would now be interested to attend. Perhaps you can’t post the link here, as it is only to be available to Flex participants? Could you send me the newsletter again, although possibly too late for this session now under way already? Thanks.
Aah, found it, and on now.
@Matt Someone on the webinar today, just as I was leaving, asked me to give details of FurbNow, but I didn’t see who it was. They are at https://www.furbnow.com/ But don’t say anything to them about carbon credits, as that was just my speculation. I bet it is what they are using however, and they obviously, and possibly quite correctly, see carbon credits as a massive potential source of finance for retrofit, given the confidence with which she was talking about their plans. Could the Carbon Coop and People-Powered Retrofit consider this very seriously? Or is the concept of carbon credits too off-limits for the Carbon Coop to consider?
@Peter_Bates Yes, solar and battery integration. Of course; very nice. Hope you can get it to work. I’m still some way behind the curve with Home Assistant, but working on it when I get the chance.
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A digestion from the original topic but as @Paul_Hadfield mentioned it, I have included it in this thread.
@Paul_Hadfield It was me that asked about Furbnow. I’ve just checked their website. It’s looks a bit suspicious - with no indication of where they are located, who is involved and taking money online without clearly saying what they offer.
However, I’ve just come across this online event being organised by NESTA - the UK’s social Innovation agency for Social Good - Mission Possible: a retrofit revolution | Nesta on Thursday 24 November 2022 @ 12:30 hrs will be a bit more revealing about Furbnow and their founder Becky Lane
Hey @Peter_Bates ,
It’s rather outside of what PowerShaper supports, but as Shelly temperature add-on is rather lacking in documentation (unlike the rest of their line), here’s some pointers.
There is a video here on how to connect the hardware together.
In your kit you should have 3 clamp down inline connectors, one for each colour, all the reds go in one, all the yellows in another and all the blacks in the final. I’s probably worth connecting one at a time for easier identification. Once in your shelly app, they should be available in your COFYbox via MQTT and appear in entities.
In the automation you can either use use the sensor as a trigger (using ‘State trigger’) or as a condition for an existing automation (i.e only turn on immersion if temp is below 60). If you get the hardware setup, I’m sure we can look at the automation in EcoHome Lab, if you have any problems.
Hope that helps,
Matt
A digression, yes @Peter_Bates, I noticed this after looking again at their website, and am already signed up for the webinar tomorrow. See you there. I might after all ask if they are planning to use carbon credits.
Thanks @matt I’ve nearly got the hardware wired. My problem is knowing how to power-up the ShellyPM (No main power supply socket near by. However, I do have the Relay box with the other Shelly device in it for switching the immersion heater on and off. I’m wondering whether I can get a power supply from that?
Or could I replace the original Shelly device with the Shelly PM and make it switch on and off the power supply as well as feed temperature data from the temperature probe that goes into the HWC?
Hi Peter,
Sorry for the response lag, you should be fine to power it from the same inputs as the Shelly EM, with the usual caveat of work being done by electrically competent person. I wouldn’t replace the Shelly device with the PM, while it’s theoretically rated for 16a it’s quite a small relay. That is why on our installations we use the shelly to trip a much more heavy duty 25A relay that’s made for long term usage.
I’ve attached a diagram of how your current device is built - you’d attach the shelly PM to the L & N terminal blocks on the incoming power. You’re not engaging with the relay in any way, as the Shelly PM is just adding a conditional feed to the automation your running on the Cofybox that will control your Shelly EM.
Hope that makes some sense?
Matt
