There’s a guy who lives a few blocks down he street from me who is a retired engineer. He’s an extremely handy fella and routinely engages in hobby-like activities that would be well beyond the ken of mortal men. One of the things he has done is installed wifi enabled remote valves and sensors on most of his water system. I was amazed when I first heard about it a year or two ago but, as it turns out, the technology is getting more and more mainstream. Most notably, he installed remote valves in his basement to allow him to shut off water to the water heater and other appliances via his phone. Additionally, there are also sensors that, when they detect water where it shouldnt be, send him an alert and optionally automatically shut off pre-selected valves.
This is the way.
If you hit Amazon and search “wifi valves” or a similar search term, you can see a rather staggering amount of devices that will perform these tasks. Truly, we are living in the future.
I’m a suspenders-and-belt kinda guy so in addition to an automatic shutoff when water is detected, I’d also want an audible alarm to bring the matter to my attention….just in case wifi technology and servo-enabled valves decide to not quite work as planned.
And, most importantly, having a pipe patch kit handy. Gasket material, dope, hose clamps, sections of hose, etc. I once got a broken pipe capped off using a section of hose that slipped over thebroken end, hose clamped it in place, and then folded it over on itself andhose clamped it again to effectively cap the broken end…allowing me to run the water again.
I need to research some more, but I suspect by this time next year I’ll have some sort of HAL 9000 setup going to keep a handle, so to speak, on something like this happening again.
Great.
Sort of.
With the cautionary tale that anything you can access remotely, someone not you can also potentially access remotely.
A school district was closed yesterday when someone remotely accessed their wifi controls and turned off their heating systems.
Probably some enterprising teenagers who didn’t want to take a test. Maybe some hacker just playing with a poorly secured system, because they could.
The power companies hereabouts want “smart” meters, so they can turn off your air conditioning when demand is high. I’m sure they’ll never do that when it’s an elderly person shut inside a 110-degree apartment all day. [/sarc]
Now flash forward to it being your phone app-controlled implanted insulin pump.
The internet of things is always a mixed blessing.
All fun and games until some kid in china keeps turning your water off… or on just before a freeze.
+1 on patching/closure parts and tools. My house is plumbed in PEX so I have PEX stuff on hand – a couple 1/2 and 3/4 10 ft lengths, couple Sharkbite couplings, valves and caps, brass and plastic PEX couplings and elbows, PEX crimp rings and the tool to install them. FYI, there are different types of PEX, investigate and see which yur huse uses, it’s not uncommon to see different types in different places in the same house.
Were it cheaper, I’d get the cordless multi-step PEX expander tool and the crimp rings that go with it. Someday.
In the old house it was lengths of 1/2 and 3/4 copper pipe, elbows, couplings and caps, and a propane torch and solder (and a couple heat shields to protect the structure behind whatever I’m soldering).
Pro Tip: Whatever plumbing system you have, when you get the repair parts get a few extra to practice with. The time to learn how to use them is before water is pouring on the floor. And, now is the time to map out where your plumbing runs are and label them.
And, if you’re doing any remodeling or renovating, think about adding shutoff valves in strategic places; yes, you can use the main house shutoff, but it’s much handier to be able to shut off water to just one bathroom for an hour or two instead of the entire house.
Everyone who lives in the house knows where the main shutoff is and how to operate it, right?
Truly, we do live in an incredible time of possibilities…
But the cautious and paranoid people that we’ve become, due to malicious
and cruel folks abounding…it wouldn’t be too much of a problem for “rascals”
to destroy folks homes by “hacking” these devices…just because they can.
In a perfect world, all the bells and whistles spoken of would be great !
But I would caution to go manual with an alarm to notify of doom…rather than
roll the dice against a “hacked” water system.
I’ve read of countless articles of folks who’ve endured the flooding of full basements and water standing a foot deep on the main floor. Structures that experience these type of floods obviously become structurally unsound.
Yep. Because 2% of society can’t keep their filthy paws off other people’s property, the other 98% must have keys to their cars, locks on doors, and eff’d-up passwords.
Yeah, the most secure system is one that is not wifi enabled…
Bit of advice from someone who’s had to deal with a broken actuator on a very important valve- if at all possible, get an actuated valve that still allows you to manually operate it. If you cannot operate the valve without power, wifi, bluetooth, cellphone, etc, it’s only a matter of time before it’s stuck in a position that you don’t want it to be. If an actuated valve that also allows for manual operation isn’t available (or in your budget), plumb in that manual valve you were talking about AND a manual bypass around the actuated valve. If the actuated valve fails to shut, you shut the manual valve inline with it. If the actuated valve fails to open, you open the manual valve in parallel with it. Automation is great, until it’s not. Always give yourself a manual option.
Hack warnings and yep, remember in Colorado when people had their thermostats overridden and locked by the utility company? Careful what corporation has access (Amazon cough cough).
Yes. “IoT”
“Internet of Things”. So nifty.
IOT has been around for a long time, and many advances as to monitoring and control of devices via internet are coming every day.
But… the security aspect has been sorely lacking in almost all of them. The school mentioned above, getting its HVAC turned off by hackers, is a great example.
IoT is being added to many things in the appliance world. Right now, high-end refrigerators will text you when you are low on milk.
Does that also mean PLA Corporal Chang can set your fridge to 70 degrees while you are on vacation. It might. That’ll be a science project waiting for you!
Switch from ethernet connection to WiFi and even more opportunities come up for hackers.
Everything WILL be connected to the internet, eventually, but please make sure anything you are connecting now is firewalled, and secured.
CZ: Hal, open the basement door to let me out and shut off the water.
Hal 2000: I’m sorry CZ I am unable to do that.
So tell me. When the Crash Test Dummy in the White House shuts down all the nuclear and coal fired plants. Along with the relatively new tech of natural gas fired plants in favor sold green shut that don’t work. When the wind don’t blow. And the sun don’t shine. Nothing will run.
The Genius of Uncle Fudd Biden made the grandiose statement that if the power goes out why you can plug your house into your junk thst don’t work Electric Vehicle. Seems to be the flavor if the month for every problem. Joe Biden’s an idiot. But an eclectic car. The shelves st the store are empty. Buy an electric car.
Sister Jennifer Granholm of the Holy Sisters of Money Laundering. The idiot grifter thst Biden appointed energy Secretary gas a huge conflict of interest. She has a $4 million dollar investment in the Green Energy company that she pushes and pushes. This genius gave $40 million of our tax money To Solindra. Remember that scam. And she was getting ready to give them an additional $35 million when the dump went Tango Uniform. She was trying to buy a cabinet seat in the Obama Regime.
Remember this. You can tell how bad a product is by the size of the tax break or check the Gummit gives a you to buy in to being stylish. Screw that.
No.
Never.
Ref-Ask the Canadians about there bank accounts when the fought back against the Illegitimate boi tyrant son of Fidel.
I’ve had good luck with YoLink’s off the shelf stuff. I use some temp monitors in freezers and some motion detectors and it works like a charm.
Oh hell no… no infrastructure controls in my house connected to wifi. Any/all ‘radio’ connections can be hacked and explored. Even hard wired connections can be but that has to be physical and not ‘in the ether’ like wifi. I’ve got all our wifi locked down as best I can but the only thing it connects is the computer and TV stuff and that at the lowest possible and as secure as I can make it.
My smoke alarms, excess waterflow & wet basement floor alarms send alerts to my cell phone, but I don’t use the internet for well pump shutoff. I call my home phone and my answering machine has a tap that allows me to take control with touch tones. After entering the passcodes, I can turn off the well pump along with other actions. I also have a timer on the well pump circuit so that if the pump cycles off and on for more than then ten minutes (based on shower and laundry requirements) it shuts off the well pump solid state relay which is in series with the pump switch.
Lewiston gun show today.