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Question of the Day: What's the most interesting small town you've visited in South Africa?
Geyser Timer
- Thread starter gboy
- Start date
Speedster
Honorary Master
Not quite sure what you mean?
soulie
Expert Member
if you are just looking for a basic timer the Major Tech industrial timers ( mechanical not digital )with battery backup are very good .around 100 hours on battery .ive installed many and never had a comeback or a failure .
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soulie
Expert Member
let it come on at say 5am to 6.30am .and same at night .it will only use power if the geyser is lower than the set point
I always try to set my timer to switch OFF just before the usual showers commence in my household. No need to heat up new cold water, just for nobody to use it till the next morning.
Loadshedding problem:
How are you dealing with loadshedding and your timers. Its quite annoying if loadshedding happens to occur during your usual geyser on-time. I have tried shifting the time schedule to at least two hours on-time, and on odd hours (my muni switches loadshedding on even hours). Sort of works, but isn't very efficient. Geyser is on longer than it has to be. I have the same problem with the pool timer and even smart switches (e.g. google home routines to switch on outside lights at 18h30). I wish there was a smart switch, which was loadshedding aware. E.g. pool pump must run for 10 hours, regardless of loadshedding, or if the light didn't switch on at 18h30, switch it on at 20h00.
Loadshedding problem:
How are you dealing with loadshedding and your timers. Its quite annoying if loadshedding happens to occur during your usual geyser on-time. I have tried shifting the time schedule to at least two hours on-time, and on odd hours (my muni switches loadshedding on even hours). Sort of works, but isn't very efficient. Geyser is on longer than it has to be. I have the same problem with the pool timer and even smart switches (e.g. google home routines to switch on outside lights at 18h30). I wish there was a smart switch, which was loadshedding aware. E.g. pool pump must run for 10 hours, regardless of loadshedding, or if the light didn't switch on at 18h30, switch it on at 20h00.
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Ps. I have found that the cheap majortech timers will switch on after loadshedding, even if it "missed" the intial switch-on time. It contains a rechargeable battery, which keeps the timer going. The 4 hours sheddings aren't great for these timers, as they will forget their timer schedule/programming if the battery runs flat (which happens if the battery has aged sufficiently). Smart switches (sonoff) will throw a notification on your phone when the power is off at the scheduled time, but does not "auto resume" when the power is back. Maybe there's a setting somehwere I missed?
soulie
Expert Member
the MT industrial timers turn constantly whether on mains or battery so time is dependant on lever settings the digital ones are a pain
krieg
Expert Member
Go to settings -> power on state -> on/off/last state
Unfortunately, that does not help if the state was scheduled to change during the power outage.
krieg
Expert Member
Then you need to get creative through home assistant.
Tim_vb
Expert Member
Hi, this is the one I got and from this shop.
63A 1P Smart Circuit Breaker with monitoring - eWelink
Connect this high powered Smart Switch to your high current appliances and control it from anywhere. This device is perfect to control your geyser (up to 63A). You can set this device to automatically switch off your geyser during peak times and switch it back on during off peak times.www.robofactory.co.za
I'm yet to test the accuracy of the Amps and Watts that it records will be interested to know how accurate it is, but I'm liking the data it gives, you can download a 3month usage spreadsheet too, only thing I wish it would give is the actual time that the kW where being used.
Once I'm done with the geyser testing I'm thinking of moving it around and seeing what my whole house or certain circuts in the house are drawing.
I'm looking at the same device - but in my case I want to limit the guards in the complex from leaving on the heater all day and night. Is it possible to set an action suck as powering off (or triggering an alert) after a certain amount of power has been used in the day
Honestly, you don't even need to use the energy reading. Just assume the heater is always in the on position and set the timer for x amount of hours per day. In form the guards or they will just think its broken / plug it into another outlet.
Geoff.D
Honorary Master
Do you have the details of a supplier of the mechanical timers please?
soulie
Expert Member
Major Tech MTD 2 analogue timer .google it but check pricing it varies wildly .lots of retailers sell them.make sure it suits your application amps etc
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Speedster
Honorary Master
Or just set it to turn on every 5 mins during the desired on times.
krieg
Expert Member
I understood that he wants the appliance to run a set amount of hours, if loadshedding occurs during that period extend off time by two hours or whatever. Thinking about it again I think an old school rotary timer without a battery will have this effect.
Speedster
Honorary Master
Ah ok. I missed that part.
soulie
Expert Member
yes the Panasonic timers will be ideal except if it switches off just before LS then it will have an extended off period
soulie
Expert Member
ok so if the author wants the geyser to come on for 2 hours say after every loadshedding irrespective of the timer setting just use a Delay off timer in parallel to the regular timer .that will time out after a set time no matter the manual timers setting and turn off the appliance or whatever .1.5 hours would be more than enough .with relays in timers you can control anything easily .