How Did You WEMO That? (Read-Only)

[zombu2]

Hello 

I have used a WEMO Light switch to time my hot water heater and used IFTTT to control it 

Wemo lightswitch triggers a relay which in turn triggers a 220v relay that i swiped out of an old Ac Compressor case

The whole thing is stuffed into an old timer box from the electric company (it was never hooked up so i cleaned it out and repurposed it)

even put a lil red light in to see if it is on or not

Here are some pictures

PIC 1

PIC 2

Not the cleanest install but it works just fine

[Percival876]

hey zombu2, great idea, unfortunately alot of people thought of this already. i am not trying to put you down or anything but i suggest that you disconnect the wemo light switch from the 220v power supply A.S.A.P. although this does work the belkin wemo system was not designed to work with such a high voltage of 220v, and it is a huge fire hazard, i may enter the competition(im telling you this before had so tht u wont make any assumptions or etc) but even so i think that safety should come before any competition, so even thou its a good idea i suggest for ur safety u disconnect it. and i will try to find the link and post it here but belkin themselves DO NOT reccommend that you use their light switch with 220v

[Percival876]

 here is the link that i promised, according to the thread the us version is only rated for 110v but the austrailian version is 240v, if you are in australia or are using the australian model i do apologize but if not then i would reccommend that you disconnect it asap.

[zombu2]

Hey there 

thnx for the info but the switch is only connected to 1 phase which is 110v .. the 220v ac relay has the 220v 2 phase on it since i did not only want to kill 1 phase 

the light switch is run with 110v 1 phase and actuates a mini relay which in turn actuates the big 220v relay 

the big ac relay gets switched on and off by 110v ...the 220 only pass through the big ac relay and is seperated from the 110v

looking at the open wemo switch i see no reason it can't work with 220v 1 phase system all the components are rated up to 250v ...even the relay is rated for that and with the higher power anything behind the switch will draw less amps .

but then again in the USA you can only get 220v if you use 2 phase which in my case is not the case it is 110v 1 phase

The only thing i have to point out that belkin used crappy cheap capacitors which will likely fail in a year or 2 but i cross that bridge when i get to it and replace em with rubicon ones or hybrid caps  

[Percival876]

ah kk coolz, just keep things safe

[zombu2]

Yup always keep things safe hehe

I'm not a big fan of house fires

[Jgrono]

There's an easier way to do this. With a 220 volt hot water heater and a 110 volt WeMo light switch, just add a 220 volt contactor with a 110 volt trigger that can handle the amperage of the hot water heater.

The trick is to use a normally open contactor that is activated by 110 volts. When the WeMo is powered on, the contactor closes and the water heater is on. WeMo off, hot water heater off.

If you use a contactor, (relay) like I am referring to, the WeMo never sees 220 volts and you don't have to mess with a transformer. Just add the Wemo light switch to a seperate 110 volt circuit that has a neutral.

Alternatively, you could use a WeMo maker and choose a different contactor that was activated by that lower DC voltage instead of 110v AC from the WeMo light switch. That is how most heat pumps are triggered from a thermostat and no one can argue that those are unsafe.

[jimde]

I would use a normally closed contactor that is activated by 110 volts and then turn on the wemo switch when you want the water heater off. The reason: if the relay ever burns out our fails, the water heater will continue to work. I travel internationally and if the relay were to fail, my wife would have to call an electrician to bypass the relay in order to have hot water.