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?

--
Timothy Murphy
e-mail: gayleard /at/ eircom.net
tel: +353-86-2336090, +353-1-2842366
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland

Timothy Murphy coughed up some electrons that declared:

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?


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

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.

"Martin Pentreath" wrote in message
...
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.


I'm sure there is a UK Version, but this might help with the concept part
http://www.smarthome.com/_/Dimmers_L.../_/z/land.aspx

In article
s.com, Martin Pentreath scribeth thus
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.

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;!...


--
Tony Sayer

Timothy Murphy wrote:
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?

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

http://www.homeeasy.eu/product4.php

Don'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

Timothy Murphy formulated the question :
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?

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.



--
Regards,
Harry (M1BYT) (L)
http://www.ukradioamateur.co.uk

In article , Harry
Bloomfield scribeth thus
Timothy Murphy formulated the question :
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?


http://www.phaedrusltd.com/pages/html/netiom.html


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....

http://www.audon.co.uk/it_sys.html
--
Tony Sayer

Lobster wrote:

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?

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?

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.


--
Timothy Murphy
e-mail: gayleard /at/ eircom.net
tel: +353-86-2336090, +353-1-2842366
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland

"Timothy Murphy" wrote in message
...
Lobster wrote:

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?

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?

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.

Timothy Murphy


Would it be easier with one of these
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?...SO&U=strat1 5
?

BigWallop wrote:

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.

http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?...SO&U=strat1 5
?

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.

--
Timothy Murphy
e-mail: gayleard /at/ eircom.net
tel: +353-86-2336090, +353-1-2842366
s-mail: School of Mathematics, Trinity College, Dublin 2, Ireland

"Timothy Murphy" wrote in message
...
BigWallop wrote:

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.


http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?...SO&U=strat1 5
?

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.

Timothy Murphy


There is always this one
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?...e=14&doy=22m11
Which does have a Weekend Only facility.

Still a lot cheaper than home automation systems.

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:

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.

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