In a recent thread about IR bridges I mentioned that I've been trying out YoLink products which has a learning IR device. They also have very small (2.5" diameter) motion detectors, mini-plugs, 5 load powerstrips and dry contact relay devices, among others including one that has a finger that will reach out and press a button! With motion detectors in bathrooms your circulation pump could be turned on with a mini-plug or dry contact module. I haven't purchased a mini-plug yet but I can tell you that the relay module click is barely audible.
The nice thing about YoLink devices, in addition to the low cost, is that regardless of the number of devices, the hub uses just a single IP address from your router. All the other devices communicate using the very robust LoRa RF protocol which I've found to work everywhere inside and outside my 2 story grouted and rebarred concrete block home, yard and dock. The app enables the automation between the devices and there's also Alexa/GH and IFTTT if you use those. Through the Alexa app I even have the YoLink skill talking to the Smartenit skill to operate X10 devices.
Thanks, I'm definitely going to look into it.
All of my X10 devices work with 99.9% reliability thanks to Jeff's XTB-IIR+ and a few filters so my only interest is in the sensors at this point.
Curious which software package you use. HomeGenie ? And how many filters is "a few" ?
I haven't counted all the loads in my home yet - I'm in the process of doing so, but I wouldn't be surprised if there are over 300 plug-in devices, and 20 with dedicated breakers. I have far more filters than the number of X10 devices I use. Usually they are in the room where the X10 devices are. But not always.
I'm at nowhere near 99.9% system reliability unfortunately. I couldn't put a number to it. In some rooms, like my office and home theater, they work well enough, probably over 95%, maybe more. But when the controller is far away from the devices, things start to fail. Usually, everything fine the day I test things. But the day I actually need to use them, that's when they fail. For example, earlier tonight, lights on my rear patio and hot tub on the deck. I'm not sure how much is problems with X10 powerline, and how much is browser bugs and/or HomeGenie bugs. I use Firefox on Android with the web interface. Sometimes I press the "On" button, and there is no feedback in the UI, and unsurprisingly, nothing happens. I can press things 5-10 times in a row, and still zero feedback in UI. I thought this might be down to tiny and/or wet fingers, but I was just able to reproduce it right now in my office. Even zooming in on the web UI to make the button very large, things still didn't work.
There was a huge lag, in the order of tens of seconds, or even minutes. It eventually worked. Perhaps a Raspberry Pi 3B+ isn't fast enough to run HomeGenie. Or maybe I need better software. I think it's fair to say there is more than one problem at stake.
One question though. Doesn't turning off the circulation pump defeat the purpose of having instant hot water (if that's what you're using it for)? When we're out the pump is off - as well as the water for that matter - but otherwise it runs 24/7 if we're home. If it were on a motion detector wouldn't it take almost as much time to get hot water as it would without one? The Grundfos pump we have draws 25 watts which costs less than $30/year to run 24/7 and is so quiet I have to touch it to confirm it's running so I've never thought about turning it off when home. I also think that running it may use less heating resources since warm water is returned to the tank instead of the cold water water sitting in the line. All in all I'm not sure there'd be any noticeable cost benefit to not leaving it running.
I couldn't care less about instant hot water. I'm running into a very odd plumbing situation where hot water doesn't get to fixtures reliably. Same problem on both water heaters. One of them has a circulation pump, and turning on that pump fixes the problem. Turning it off makes the water drop temperature instantly The second water heater has no pump, and problem is unresolved to this day. I have been pulling my hair out over it.
https://www.reddit.com/r/Plumbing/comments/sn40rc/hot_water_circulation_problem/Had the nth plumber come earlier tonight who said he has never seen anything like this and has no clue what the problem is.
The pump I have uses 80 watts. It's hardwired to an XPS4, but not on a dedicated breaker. I measured the load with my Rainforest Eagle, that gave me a realtime reading of the whole house meter, with and without the pump. 80 watts is 700 kWh per year. That's a bit over $200/year around here in California. Definitely real money. And I can hear it from nearly every room inside my 4700 sq ft house. But particularly in my home theater which is adjacent to the utility room where the pump is. I would like to rip out the pump altogether, but that would mean no longer being able to take showers, wash clothes, etc. A second pump might be needed to fix the issue with the second water heater, and I really hate the thought of that. That would mean no longer being able to make decent recordings of my harpsichords - a pump in the garage would be undoubtedly be picked up by my microphones in the music room.
Honestly, we are getting far away from the smarthome discussion here, but if you have any insight on the plumbing situation, I would be most welcome.