HS-Flex sensor temperature reading surprisingly useful recently

[jmaddox]

I'm in Texas and with our recent inclement cold weather I've discovered a use for a feature of the HS-Flex Sensor I previously discounted. I have a Flex installed in my mechanical closet. The mechanical closet contains my furnace/AC, whole house humidifier, and tankless water heater; all drain into a common sewer inlet. The closet also contains a Manablock pex water manifold. With so many potential sources of water the Flex sensor made a lot of sense. I never saw a need to pay attention to the Flex Sensor's temperature reading. Due to remodeling, the mechanical closet is open to my attic. With our current subzero temperatures there is the possibility of the Manablock water manifold freezing. Pex pipes themselves are quite resistant to bursting when frozen, however the Manablock manifold is plastic; if it froze it would be devastating. I've been very lucky in that I've not lost power.

As I took steps to safeguard my plumbing fixtures using traditional methods, I also added an event to alert me via push notification if temperatures in the mechanical closet started approaching zero. As I write this, the house is at 70 degrees F, the mechanical closet is reporting 47.8 degrees F.

[devoir]

jmaddox glad to hear you & the family rode thru this one....


I haven't seen the HS Flex sensor. Did your mount it to the manifold??

For your design It would be cool to add a small electric valve based on your trigger, this becomes active vs passive email
1 recirculate water thru the manifold from the hot water heater
2 open electric valve dump water down the drain . ( drain at a low flow rate)

either/both to prevent freezing..

I agree with your point on the manifold, during the freeze mine broke. I had insulated pipes in the HVAC closet the PEX survived. I failed to recognize the weak link was the plastic manifolds in the ON-Demand hot water heaters. Thought we had dripped hot/cold water thru every faucet but the 5'F was to cold.... I'm surprised we didn't lose a water line to any toilets. Don't know how folks drip water thru them....

Yep I'm in Coppell TX just got power back today almost 4 days without power, Home automation basically none existant......

Let's say Texas law sucks it sets the insurance deductible at 1% of the home, which value make your step in price to fix stuff no fun....

Texas power loss was preventable This is what happens when you go for Energy that's not Reliable, and don't spend the money to maintain the equipment required to base load demand.


Moto for the year. Home Automation is Great "AS long as you have power".


Devoir

[jmaddox]

Since I wanted the sensor to cover all the possible water sources in my mechanical closet I ran it's sensor around the perimeter of the closet including under the water manifold. In the past I've had the drain line from my AC unit clog and start to overflow as well as the sewer inlet.

if you have a toilet with a water line in an exterior wall, or your power is out, you could 'drip' it by putting something under the flapper valve located inside the tank. This would cause the toilet to run continuously.

I agree the majority of the power outages were preventable. Just because significant freezing weather is rare in Texas doesn't mean you shouldn't invest in cold weather infrastructure. Having power generation out due to freezing is not acceptable in my opinion.

https://shop.homeseer.com/products/z...erature-sensor

[TC1]

jmaddox glad you and your family are ok.

Those plastic manifolds, while common, make me nervous (I live in the northeast so we see sub-freezing temps every year). Ever think about changing it out with a brass one for piece of mind?

[jmaddox]

jmaddox glad you and your family are ok.

Those plastic manifolds, while common, make me nervous (I live in the northeast so we see sub-freezing temps every year). Ever think about changing it out with a brass one for piece of mind?

I installed the unit myself in 2014, so I'd be unlikely to replace it. This is the only time I've ever had to consider that it might freeze. The same manufacture does have a variety of multi valve copper units.

The freezing weather and chance of power outages made me consider emergency actions to take if the power had gone out. I'm just glad I didn't need to act on any of those.