Automated Whole House Water Shut Off Implementations?

Wiki Projects & Stories
1

I have been wanting to automate the shut off of my water supply for some time when a leak is detected. I have already installed leak sensors in critical areas but am still trying to figure out the best way to install a water valve and which one to install. Below is a snippet of a picture I had that happens to show the water softener and a whole house active water filter. I believe the water ingress pipe is on the far left. I was hoping others with a similar setup could share their installation picture and experience. I would like to tidy this up and make it more robust as I feel like a pipe will come off just by touching it. The piping used in the house is clear and flexible so they could avoid joints and likely cost… but when it comes out of the wall it really feels like the joints are held together with spit. (Compression joints)

water_softener_and_whole_house_water_filter.JPG385Ă—769 23 KB

Any idea?

Whatever valve I go with, I would want to be able to shut it off manually as well as needed ideally regardless whether there is power or not.

2

Here are two popular options I know of:

http://www.fortrezz.com/water-valves/

http://www.econetcontrols.com/product/econet-z-wave-water-shutoff-ebv105/

I like the Econet valve because it is cheaper and can be updated easier if required. There is a standard SmartThings device type for valves so they will both work on a V2 hub even when internet connection is lost. I have not implemented this yet but am planning as soon as my wife “approved budget” for this :yum:

Edit: Just found another one: https://www.amazon.com/Z-Wave-Water-Valve-Control-ZAC03/dp/B01AKCPEHG/ref=cm_cr_dp_asin_lnk

2 Likes
3

You can set them up to work when the Internet is down, but all the water valve actuators I know of that can work with SmartThings are mains-powered; they are plug-in devices that won’t work when the power is out.

There are a couple of options. You could put the valve actuator on a UPS, but the problem is these draw a lot more voltage than the typical laptop or Home router, you may need to go to a commercial UPS which is a lot more expensive.

So it could be done but it depends on your budget as to whether it’s worth it to you.

If you have an emergency power generator for the house, you should be fine, just make sure the actuator is on a circuit that the generator will power.

4

@pizzinini - I think I will install both a manual shut off valve, and a solenoid valve. I am not too fond of the bolt on motors to regular manual shutoffs although they are a great choice to avoid a plumbing work if you already have a general shut off valve. The manual shut off valve for my house is in a small manhole in the yard and likely controlled by the utility company.

While I am at it, I might also add a flow meter so I can keep track of water consumption…

A company that makes both these devices is:

https://www.leakintel.com/WD210AWP/WD210Awp.exe/CONNECT/LeakIntel?WWREFERER=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.leakintel.com%2FIndex.awp&WWNATION=2&WW1STPAGE=Products&Categorysysid=1&Guest=1

@JDRoberts - I’ve seen a number of solenoid valves meant for residential pipes that required less than 1.5A at 12V DC. The products listed on the site above seem to require less than 1A, while the Fortrezz model seems to require about 1.3A at full load - both at 12V DC. Given they run at 12V DC I can easily replace their power supply with a sealed lead acid battery that is always under charge - essentially a 12V DC UPS. By using a 9Ah SLA battery I should be able to guarantee between 5 and 8 hours of protection without power.

Mentions 12V DC 1A requirement to control valve and control circuit:
http://www.leakintel.com/support/technical/LGZW%20Ver%20204%20Leak%20Gopher%20Z-Wave%20Plus%20Instructions%2012VDC.pdf

Mentions power supply provided handles a full load of 1.3A at 12V DC
http://www.fortrezz.com/water-valves

My internet connection hardware is:

Fiber to Ethernet adapter outside my house --> Uverse Gateway --> Router --> ST hub

The Uverse box is actually a router but I set it in pass through so I can avoid using ATT’s junk. The adapter outside my house is powered by a 12V UPS that has a 12V 7Ah battery in it, while the Uverse Gateway, Router and ST Hub are all powered by a dedicated 1500VA 120V UPS. I have not done formal testing but my internet access was rock solid during a number of small recent outages.

My biggest issue is the actual physical implementation… plumbing, anchoring the new devices to something on the wall so there is no undue pressure on the plastic pipes sticking out of the wall. I do not want the whole thing to look like some hack or to cause some pipe joint to leak because of the weight of added equipment.

Borrowing a picture from Fortrezz:

M&JPHOTOGRAPHY84.jpg2200Ă—1469 1.64 MB

The setup here looks a bit messy but at least it is anchored to the wall, and uses copper pipes so it is solid.

EDIT: One thing I forgot is that zigbee and zwave mesh networks would be mostly down in the event of a power outage (all hardwired/plug in devices would be down) therefore the messages from leak sensors to the hub and hub to shut off valve may never get to destination unless they normally talk to the hub directly. Even if ranger were not an issue, I wonder whether the mesh networks would heal themselves at all or in useful time.

The chances of a leak happening when the power is out is way smaller than it happening while power is on so maybe I should just worry about the latter scenario to keep things simple/practical.

1 Like
6

So did you find a solution, what did =you decide to go with I’ve foid the cheapest is the econet valve control, which will also allow for a manual overide