Sonoff POWR320D geyser timer

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zakslaher

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I purchased a the Sonoff POWR320D geyser time. It is connected switches on great.
My challenge is that due to the renovations my wifi signal does not reach the aeare where my DB box is, hence I cannot connect the device to the eWelink app.

The question is, since I cannot connect the device to the app, I cannot set the timer or control the device. Will it automatically on off the geyser based on temperature or will it stay on the entire time.
 
zakslaher said:
I purchased a the Sonoff POWR320D geyser time. It is connected switches on great.
My challenge is that due to the renovations my wifi signal does not reach the aeare where my DB box is, hence I cannot connect the device to the eWelink app.

The question is, since I cannot connect the device to the app, I cannot set the timer or control the device. Will it automatically on off the geyser based on temperature or will it stay on the entire time.
Click to expand...
How is this device monitoring the water temperature? I'm also considering installing a timer on my geyser and as far as I can tell, this switch works as a timer and power monitor only, not temperature-based switching.
 
Unless you did something dodgy with your geyser then it will be fine.

The sonoff just controls the power going to your geyser, just like your circuit breaker. Before you installed this, I'm sure you just left your geyser on 24/7 right?
 
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Not sure about this specific model, but I believe if the device is out of wifi range, it may stay "OFF". I have another sonoff device to control some lights in my garden and one day I changed the wifi password, without updating it on the sonoff device, and the device just remained on the "OFF" state. (after two days of the garden lights being off, I realized... "f*##! I changed the password! hahahahaha!).
 
Please check on your box if you have the elite version.

My brother installed this for my parents on 2 of their geysers 150km from Cape Town. He installed 6 in Cape Town for his friends to help them out. As we don't go there often it is extremely important that these devices work all the time and have connection with the Internet otherwise you will experience a wide variety of problems which I will mention shortly.

The arrangement was that I need to take care of the Internet connection and he will then install, configure and monitor the devices. He then "shared" the app to make so that I can remotely check if all is going ok. Eventually after the 1st batch problems happened I had to do everything and that is where I learned valuable lessons. Your experience might be different but I am confident that my advice might help.

Problem 1
If possible try not to use a pocket router with wifi connected to these devices. A proper Wifi router with good signal is what they require.

Also ensure under your config settings the USE LAN connection is active in the case where the internet does go down for some time. Under this setting you can still control it if you are in the house or on the same Wifi network without Internet and also sometimes it gives problems. It basically needs internet the whole time for the back end of the ewlink app. I 1st used a mesh network (better) but changed over to a single powerful router as this is kept on during loadshedding with a backup battery.

By the way I "cloned" Wifi name and password to the new router and the switch did not even know the difference. That saved me a lot of time not to reconfigure everything from scratch again.

If your signal does not reach you will have to add a 2nd router or think about getting mesh wifi. Alternatively lay a network cable and plug it into a router close to this device which then will have full wifi signal.

Problem 2

Please remember it takes 5min for this device to "Switch ON" after loadshedding. SO you won't be able to connect to it immediately after loadshedding so you have to be patient. Power also comes on just on time after loadshedding or sometimes much later. I usually 1st test these devices with an electric light and once everything works connect to the geyser. That way you know that it is working. Found out the hard way there is a delay...Very funny actually.

The app might show in red connecting to network. Just give it a couple of minutes.

I also recently discovered that on our very slow unstable work wifi that I get strange timeout errors on the app and that I cannot set anything with failed actions. Use a proper Internet connection and you won't get this messages. If you connect in loadshedding when the geyser is off you will get offline errors which is normal. If not loadshedding and offline then there is an Internet problem.

Problem 3

Once you have set the time please remember if loadshedding happens in this time (not sure if it is a fail safe) then the switch won't switch on. These devices are very sensitive. Then you have to intervene manually with the big power switch on the app. Please note there is an orange/amber/yellow light on the front of the device showing when the geyser is actually ON. If it is not lit then geyser is not ON.

There is also a blue LED light for Wireless Connectivity. Flashing blue = Problem with Wifi or Wifi not configured yet. SOLID BLUE LED indicates proper connection and working fine.

Problem 4

App not working or app working but switch is not working or some kind of random Internet/Network problem then you can manually push the round knob on the device and it will switch ON. Pressing it again manually once will switch it off again.

I learned this the hard way having multiple internet failures and not being present on the site. This manual switch is very handy if anything goes wrong. Someone will then just have to activate it. Just the remember the geyser is only on when the Orange light is on and you can see the WATTS values changing on the LCD display. Volts alone with 0000W means it is not ON.

You have 3 timing options based on your question

1. Schedule Everyday the same time on or off. Or random on and off times througout the day.

2. Timer switch it on or off based on timer but you have to be careful to select On or Off otherwise the geyser will stay on the whole time. Luckily you can switch it off quicly if you "forgot" it on.

3. Loop timer haven't used this on yet. Still need to investigate but Schedule works great

I could not see a temperature setting. You need to figure out how long it takes your geyser in the summe and winter to heat up. That will depend how long you need to switch it on. Summer shorter and winter longer. If you leave it on for 4 hours the element will turn off after 2 hours and randomly switch ON again to maintain the warm temperature.

Hopefully helpfull I still learn a couple of things the more I work with it.

There are other products on the market that can set and change geyser temperature if needed. This is just a geyser wireless switch for on and off power modes. You can also see power usage for the month and day.
 
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Will mention this thread, which may be of interest:

ESPHome+Geyserwise Smart Thermostat

I wanted to smarten up my geyser, because while I have solar panels and a battery, eventually the battery is full, and the sun is still shining, leaving energy going to waste. I figured that since I also have an electric geyser, I could use excess energy to heat water, which would otherwise need...
mybroadband.co.za mybroadband.co.za

This interfaces a Geyserwise thermostat (only the thermostat, available for around R250) with the Sonoff THR320 (which has an RJ9 socket for an external sensor), so the Sonoff can switch the geyser on and off according to the water temperature, but also depending on your power availability, turn the geyser off completely, or change the target temperature up or down.

Note: If I were to redo this now, I would probably try to change the thermistor supplied with the thermostat to a DS18b20 1Wire temperature sensor, and skip the ATtiny85 interposer entirely.
 
RoganDawes said:
Will mention this thread, which may be of interest:

ESPHome+Geyserwise Smart Thermostat

I wanted to smarten up my geyser, because while I have solar panels and a battery, eventually the battery is full, and the sun is still shining, leaving energy going to waste. I figured that since I also have an electric geyser, I could use excess energy to heat water, which would otherwise need...
mybroadband.co.za mybroadband.co.za

This interfaces a Geyserwise thermostat (only the thermostat, available for around R250) with the Sonoff THR320 (which has an RJ9 socket for an external sensor), so the Sonoff can switch the geyser on and off according to the water temperature, but also depending on your power availability, turn the geyser off completely, or change the target temperature up or down.

Note: If I were to redo this now, I would probably try to change the thermistor supplied with the thermostat to a DS18b20 1Wire temperature sensor, and skip the ATtiny85 interposer entirely.
Click to expand...
Does the Sonoff THR320 have power monitoring?
 
McGuywer said:
Does the Sonoff THR320 have power monitoring?
Click to expand...
No, it doesn’t. That said, a resistive element is pretty consistent in terms of the power it draws. So you could simply do “if on, return 2000 else return 0” in a template sensor, and be pretty close. Obviously, choose a value relative to your known element.

As an example, my inverter’s reading of my geysers power draw.IMG_3130.png
 
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riscbroker said:
How is this device monitoring the water temperature? I'm also considering installing a timer on my geyser and as far as I can tell, this switch works as a timer and power monitor only, not temperature-based switching.
Click to expand...
Correct its only a timer. However with the eWelink app you csn schedule the on/off times.
 
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