Electronic Solenoid Valve

[footVOL]

Just wanted to get your guys thoughts on using this valve for a whole home water shutoff vs an Elk or HS version. There is a huge price difference.

http://www.electricsolenoidvalves.co...olenoid-valve/

I have 2 of these on the pipes feeding my external spigots to turn the spigots off when temps drop below freezing. They work awesome for this purpose, but they do have to have power to remain open.

Look forward to your feedback.

[cowinger]

I have heard this one has pretty good reviews. Should work fine as far as fitting a residential system. Not sure if this is what you are looking for as far as doing this with a z-wave valve.

https://www.thesmartesthouse.com/col...ntroller-dmwv1

[integlikewhoa]

Just wanted to get your guys thoughts on using this valve for a whole home water shutoff vs an Elk or HS version. There is a huge price difference.

http://www.electricsolenoidvalves.co...olenoid-valve/

I have 2 of these on the pipes feeding my external spigots to turn the spigots off when temps drop below freezing. They work awesome for this purpose, but they do have to have power to remain open.

Look forward to your feedback.

HS water valve is z-wave this one is not. I'm not sure what your plan is if you add z-wave to this, but if you buy a z-wave relay valve say a mimolite that adds 60.00 to it. So you might still save money but not alot and you miss out on alot features that say a homeseer valve has. One not requiring power all the time. I also see no manual over ride on this one. Homeseer also offers a heartbeat and few other notifications that give a few extra pluses.

So I think you can save money but its up to you if you want to buy an all in one package or make one.

[Pete]

Very nice footVOL!

Domestic prices for electronic valves over the years have been high.

In 2002 on Cocoontech we did a group purchase of KLD valves.

A few Homeseer forum users joined the group buy back then. Thinking it was originally started by a long time Homeseer user.

Many folks also went on their own contacting the company and doing direct purchases.

Many folks also connected the valves to their Elk and HAI combination security and automation panels. The KLD valves has actuator and switch position sensors.

[footVOL]

Avoiding Zwave

For the guys mentioning Zwave valves.... I rely on Zwave for lighting and some other small task around the house, and with Zwave Plus and ZNET controller things are pretty solid. But even with this, for mission critical task I really prefer a wired solution and to use my Elk for the intelligence.

I'd use HS for some controls, but if a water sensor goes off and there happens to be a HS or server issue, I want the reliability of a hardware solution to turn off the water. I can easily get wiring from my Elk to the main supply, so there is no real advantage to Zwave.

[randy]

Just wanted to get your guys thoughts on using this valve for a whole home water shutoff vs an Elk or HS version. There is a huge price difference.

http://www.electricsolenoidvalves.co...olenoid-valve/

I have 2 of these on the pipes feeding my external spigots to turn the spigots off when temps drop below freezing. They work awesome for this purpose, but they do have to have power to remain open.

Look forward to your feedback.

That valve shows to use 18 watts or 1.5A at 12VDC. Accounting for energy losses in the power supply, that is likely a 20 watt load year round. While hardly breaking the bank, it will cost at least $20 per year (based on $0.11 per kwh) to keep the valve open. Additionally, if you have a power failure, you have no water unless you provide backup power.

The Z-Wave valves are convenient and seem to elicit varying reviews.

I was not part of the KLD group purchase that Pete referred to, but I did buy one direct from KLD in China. It was about $65 shipped for a full bore 3/4" stainless valve, with a 12V actuator and limit switches. It is a little tedious, but also provides a means of manual operation.

The KLD valve and the Z-Wave valve both offer the ability to stay where they are set, without power being applied.

I have been happy with the operation of the KLD valve and while we haven't had a pipe break, we did have a plumbing backup that caused puddling around the basement drain, near one of my flood detectors. The detector tripped, causing the water to be shut off and a Pushover message and emails to be generated. I also subsequently tied leak detection into a Zone on my DSC panel.

In this thread I posted a write up on the valve control and events I used for my solution. I posted that about 2 years ago and haven't changed a thing, other than to add water leak as an alarm zone. I also added a PGM output from my panel to drive the valve closed, in the event HS fails to control it.

[sparkman]

For the guys mentioning Zwave valves.... I rely on Zwave for lighting and some other small task around the house, and with Zwave Plus and ZNET controller things are pretty solid. But even with this, for mission critical task I really prefer a wired solution and to use my Elk for the intelligence.

I'd use HS for some controls, but if a water sensor goes off and there happens to be a HS or server issue, I want the reliability of a hardware solution to turn off the water. I can easily get wiring from my Elk to the main supply, so there is no real advantage to Zwave.

With z-wave valves and battery powered z-wave sensors, HS does not need to be running in order for a tripped sensor to close the valve as long as you associate the sensors with the water valve. HS is just used for notifications, etc.

Cheers
Al

[randy]

For the guys mentioning Zwave valves.... I rely on Zwave for lighting and some other small task around the house, and with Zwave Plus and ZNET controller things are pretty solid. But even with this, for mission critical task I really prefer a wired solution and to use my Elk for the intelligence.

I'd use HS for some controls, but if a water sensor goes off and there happens to be a HS or server issue, I want the reliability of a hardware solution to turn off the water. I can easily get wiring from my Elk to the main supply, so there is no real advantage to Zwave.

That is why I created redundancy between HS and my DSC alarm. They can both control the valve. If HS is able to control the valve, it takes over. If HS fails, a PGM output from my DSC panel through the N.C. of the close drive relay will control it. A pair of blocking diodes isolate the controls from each other.

[Pete]

Personally here I see the analog / digital wired mechanisms analogy as a human reflex.

You illicit a knee bounce which bypasses the brain stem and bounces the knee.

It is kind of similar to alarm/security panel firmware where as when there is an analog switch closure or open then it illicit an action and then reports said action to Homeseer.

The garage door is mentioned a few times relating to automation. Aside from multiple magnetic reed switches here use hard loops in the switches concurrent to built in GDO mechanisms (which I did not touch). IE: the open garage door open or closed is sensed via reed switch(es) with three wires (NC/NO) which are connected. Two wires are the hardwired loop such that the mechanism of action will physically occur or not occur depending on the hard loop.