15A Rated Outdoor Wifi Smart Plug for Spa Pool?

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spacedog

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#309351 11-Oct-2023 07:40

I've got a spa pool that has a dumb controller on it and will cost about $500 to upgrade it to be wifi enabled. Rather than do that, I was hoping I could find a smart plug that is outdoor / waterproof IP rated that is either plug-in or can be hardwired to control this Spa Pool so it only runs during off-peak energy hours.

I see lots of stuff that is 10A rated, but finding one that is 15A rated seems like a unicorn. I see the PDL Iconic range, but it looks like that might only be 10A as well and I want to avoid Zigbee. Preferably would like something that is Homekit or Tuya compatible that would be great.

Anyone know of such a thing available here in NZ?

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#3145171 11-Oct-2023 07:45

I'd say there's no NZ approved 15A waterproof socket available.

Just find a nice 15A socket (e.g. pdl iconic) and mount something like a Shelly inside. With the iconics there's an option for an extra switch, which you could use for manual override

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bcbear

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#3145178 11-Oct-2023 08:32

Hi all

And this is precisely what drove me into the black hole 🤣 of automation.

I had a similar issue with a pool pump, that ran 24x7 @ approx 1kW

I ended up with a 40amp inline switch from Aeotec [https://aeotec.com/products/aeoteo-heavy-duty-switch/] this is rated for outdoor .. but needs a sparky

And then because that was Z-Wave [https://aeotec.com/products/aeotec-z-stick-gen5/]

And then something to drive/control it all [https://www.openhab.org/]

Running on a Raspberry Pi

All up, initial outlay of around $400 which pretty much paid for itself in the first month

spacedog

481 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3145185 11-Oct-2023 08:44

nickb800:
I'd say there's no NZ approved 15A waterproof socket available.

Just find a nice 15A socket (e.g. pdl iconic) and mount something like a Shelly inside. With the iconics there's an option for an extra switch, which you could use for manual override

Sorry - but what’s a ‘Shelly’ ? Some kind of smart device I presume, but trying to imagine how you mount it and keep it ‘outdoor’ proof?

nztim

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#3145187 11-Oct-2023 08:52

a Phillips Hue Smart plug, if only they made a 15A Version

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mentalinc

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#3145193 11-Oct-2023 09:20

Be interested to understand the actual ROI of this approach.

I assume you're more likely to use spa end of day/evening, so wouldn't have been heated for many hours and may be cold?

You'd also need to see what it does to the temperature going hot and coldish all the time.. might be worth some manual tests first turning it off and on to see if you get the heat you want...

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eonsim

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#3145216 11-Oct-2023 10:05

Have a look at the Shelly Wifi relays and a waterproof casing for them. If you have a spa with a timer circuit, you can ask an Electrician to set up the shelly to bridge/replace the timer with the shelly and use that to switch the Spa on and off. The advantage of doing this is that the load doesn't go through the shelly Relay as it controls a switch circuit and is much less risky. We use this approach to link our spa heating with times when we have spare solar power generated.

richms

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#3145219 11-Oct-2023 10:10

Bunnings have a wire in arlec/deta relay which may be easier to obtain than a shelly and since they have sdoc's available keep the sparky happy.

https://www.bunnings.co.nz/deta-grid-connect-smart-inline-switch_p0098816

Richard rich.ms

hairy1

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#3145221 11-Oct-2023 10:13

You can put a Shelly Pro in the circuit board which would be a good solution. It has SDOC and NZ approval.

Shelly PRO 1PM Relay Switch - SmartHome

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cddt

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#3145222 11-Oct-2023 10:17

spacedog:

...Spa Pool so it only runs during off-peak energy hours.

I recently became the owner of a spa pool for the first time, and our one has a built-in schedule functionality. E.g. don't heat between 10p.m. and 7a.m. and I believe you can configure it by day of week too.

Klathman

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#3145234 11-Oct-2023 10:40

mentalinc:

Be interested to understand the actual ROI of this approach.

I assume you're more likely to use spa end of day/evening, so wouldn't have been heated for many hours and may be cold?

You'd also need to see what it does to the temperature going hot and coldish all the time.. might be worth some manual tests first turning it off and on to see if you get the heat you want...

We have a Shelly Plus 1 PM on our Spa pool and it....mostly works. I've had a couple of over-temperature alarms happen recently, and not sure if this is post a recent firmware update or something. I've turned on Eco Mode which seems to have made a difference though.

Our use case is that we have solar so we turn it on in the morning and it uses 3KW to heat it up. It's normally at temperate by about 2pm and then keeps it on until about 4pm. We then turn it on a little bit before we use it at night and it's still plenty warm enough. (It's set to 40C so even if it drops 1-2 degrees it's still fine.)

We then use our free hour at 9-10pm to warm it up again and then it turns off. I' not sure what it drops to over night but I can confirm if you want. It's likely low 30s though.

Essentially over winter, we are still importing some power to heat it but not a lot. Over Summer we still export power while it's heating the spa pool and hot water cylinder.

spacedog

481 posts

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#3145255 11-Oct-2023 11:13

richms:

Bunnings have a wire in arlec/deta relay which may be easier to obtain than a shelly and since they have sdoc's available keep the sparky happy.

https://www.bunnings.co.nz/deta-grid-connect-smart-inline-switch_p0098816

That looks like an elegant solution, but according to your link it's only good for 10A?

spacedog

481 posts

Ultimate Geek

#3145264 11-Oct-2023 11:26

hairy1:

You can put a Shelly Pro in the circuit board which would be a good solution. It has SDOC and NZ approval.

Shelly PRO 1PM Relay Switch - SmartHome

@hairy1 - does that Shelly Pro get mounted by the powerpoint outdoor or that goes directly into my main circuitbreaker in the house? It's kind of a great option if in the house because then I don't have to worry about weatherproofing.

Alternately, would this work if it could be mounted inside the existing IP rated outdoor socket? https://www.lykalyte.co.nz/products/shelly-plus-1pm

richms

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#3145265 11-Oct-2023 11:35

spacedog:

richms:

Bunnings have a wire in arlec/deta relay which may be easier to obtain than a shelly and since they have sdoc's available keep the sparky happy.

https://www.bunnings.co.nz/deta-grid-connect-smart-inline-switch_p0098816

That looks like an elegant solution, but according to your link it's only good for 10A?