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Home > Archive > Home Automation > July 2007 > Controlling Hot Water Recirculation Pumps
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Controlling Hot Water Recirculation Pumps
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| David White 2007-06-14, 1:25 pm |
| Hello. I just bought a new home that has a recirculation pump located
near the hot water heater. I am new to all this so I have some questions:
(a) I have looked online and see some of these pumps have timers
attached so they operate only during expected usage times (not between
midnight and 5am). Mine does not have one that I can see. Are these
always attached directly to the pump body or can the timer be located
elsewhere? If elsewhere, where might this be?
(b) I have read that some of these systems incorporate a temperature
switch somewhere that shuts off the pump when a pre-set temp is reached
at some point in the line. What are the signs that mine has such a switch?
(c) Even with a timer as in (a) above it seems potentially very wasteful
and hard on the pump for it to run continuously as we are not big hot
water users generally. So is there some simple way - ideally using X-10,
Active Home, CMA-11 (I think that's it), and simple macros (no running
computer needed) which I already use - to control this pump mechanism
at a more granular level?
Thanks,
David
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| BruceR 2007-06-14, 5:25 pm |
| I used to have one of those and it was made by Grudfos - a top brand. It
is designed for continuous operation so that's not a problem. A timer
would be located either on the pump or where it's plugged in or some
point on the circuit feeding it. What I did was to simply plug it into
an appliance module. Doing that it could be controlled as any other X10
device. When we set the alarm to go out or go to sleep the pump would
turn off. It would turn on again at our normal wake up time and then
stay off most of the day till dinnertime.
David White wrote:
> Hello. I just bought a new home that has a recirculation pump located
> near the hot water heater. I am new to all this so I have some
> questions:
> (a) I have looked online and see some of these pumps have timers
> attached so they operate only during expected usage times (not between
> midnight and 5am). Mine does not have one that I can see. Are these
> always attached directly to the pump body or can the timer be located
> elsewhere? If elsewhere, where might this be?
>
> (b) I have read that some of these systems incorporate a temperature
> switch somewhere that shuts off the pump when a pre-set temp is
> reached at some point in the line. What are the signs that mine has
> such a switch?
> (c) Even with a timer as in (a) above it seems potentially very
> wasteful and hard on the pump for it to run continuously as we are
> not big hot water users generally. So is there some simple way -
> ideally using X-10, Active Home, CMA-11 (I think that's it), and
> simple macros (no running computer needed) which I already use - to
> control this pump mechanism at a more granular level?
>
> Thanks,
>
> David
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| David White wrote:
> Hello. I just bought a new home that has a recirculation pump located
> near the hot water heater. I am new to all this so I have some questions:
>
> (a) I have looked online and see some of these pumps have timers
> attached so they operate only during expected usage times (not between
> midnight and 5am). Mine does not have one that I can see. Are these
> always attached directly to the pump body or can the timer be located
> elsewhere? If elsewhere, where might this be?
>
> (b) I have read that some of these systems incorporate a temperature
> switch somewhere that shuts off the pump when a pre-set temp is reached
> at some point in the line. What are the signs that mine has such a switch?
>
> (c) Even with a timer as in (a) above it seems potentially very wasteful
> and hard on the pump for it to run continuously as we are not big hot
> water users generally. So is there some simple way - ideally using X-10,
> Active Home, CMA-11 (I think that's it), and simple macros (no running
> computer needed) which I already use - to control this pump mechanism at
> a more granular level?
>
> Thanks,
>
> David
Our Buderus boiler (which also makes hot water) does this automatically.
The computer runs the pump for user controlled intervals at user
defined intervals of our choosing. I believe it is set to run for 3
minutes every half hour from 6:30 am until 11 pm.
The pump is located behind the furnace on the wall with an auxilliary
switch which allows the pump to be shut off permanently. I would expect
the pump to be located somewhere near the water heater with the timer
close by.
--
Larry
rapp at lmr dot com
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"David White" <whitedavidp@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:76udnYZFN5WKzOzbnZ2dnUVZ_gadnZ2d@comcast.com...
> Hello. I just bought a new home that has a recirculation pump
> located near the hot water heater. I am new to all this so I have
> some questions:
>
> (a) I have looked online and see some of these pumps have timers
> attached so they operate only during expected usage times (not
> between midnight and 5am). Mine does not have one that I can see.
> Are these always attached directly to the pump body or can the timer
> be located elsewhere? If elsewhere, where might this be?
>
> (b) I have read that some of these systems incorporate a temperature
> switch somewhere that shuts off the pump when a pre-set temp is
> reached at some point in the line. What are the signs that mine has
> such a switch?
Type the model # on your pump into google or go to the manufacturers
web site and find the manual.
Bob
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| CWatters 2007-07-24, 5:25 pm |
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"David White" <whitedavidp@comcast.net> wrote in message
news:76udnYZFN5WKzOzbnZ2dnUVZ_gadnZ2d@comcast.com...
> Hello. I just bought a new home that has a recirculation pump located
> near the hot water heater. I am new to all this so I have some questions:
>
> (a) I have looked online and see some of these pumps have timers
> attached so they operate only during expected usage times (not between
> midnight and 5am). Mine does not have one that I can see. Are these
> always attached directly to the pump body or can the timer be located
> elsewhere? If elsewhere, where might this be?
On many systems there is no timer. The loop runs continuously. You can get a
timer added easily.
> (b) I have read that some of these systems incorporate a temperature
> switch somewhere that shuts off the pump when a pre-set temp is reached
> at some point in the line. What are the signs that mine has such a switch?
On my system I've added a timer and a pipe mounted thermostat. The timer
turns the loop off at night. The pipe stat is clamped to the pipe where the
hot loop returns to the hot water tank. It turns off the pump during the day
once the hot water has gone around the loop an heated the return. Eventually
the loop cools again and the pump restarts. The pipe stat is overkill
really. A system is perfectly ok without.
> (c) Even with a timer as in (a) above it seems potentially very wasteful
> and hard on the pump for it to run continuously as we are not big hot
> water users generally. So is there some simple way - ideally using X-10,
> Active Home, CMA-11 (I think that's it), and simple macros (no running
> computer needed) which I already use - to control this pump mechanism
> at a more granular level?
These recirculating pumps are quite low power and are designed to run
continuously. The power should be written on it somewhere. I guess you
could use an appliance module to control it and switch it off at night.
Definitly overkill though!
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