Smart Home Scenarios: The Water Valve

A water valve seems easy. Close when a flood is sensed. But that is reactive. I wanted it more proactive. Why not shut down water pipes BEFORE there is a leak? Of course I installed sensors (wireless) that detect leakage and close the main valve. This is easy in most home automation systems.

But then I thought water should be shut down whenever the house is not occupied. Meaning when the burglar alarm is armed or there is no motion / presence detected for a certain time. It was almost that easy until I realized the washing machine is often programmed to wash when we are away. So the valve should open when a washing cycle is active. This has no longer been so easy, how do you detect a washing cycle? I never wanted to introduce a special extra user interface. The washing machine has a simple dial to delay the cycle by up to 8 hours. The UI is super intuitive and we use it almost every day, leaving for work in the morning, we set it to +7 hours, so the cycle starts just in time to finish when we are back home in the afternoon.

To detect the washing activity I connected the machine to the wall via a smart plug. No to control it, but to sense, when a washing cycle is active.

The wall plug is a sensor. A bit unusual, as it has been designed to be an actor, switching the load on and off. But is also has a current measurement circuitry, which can provide information to the system. The washing machine UX stays unchanged. An analog dial to postpone the cycle. The smart intelligence behind it is invisible.

Water is shut down whenever we are away from home. Or when flood is detected by the sensor. But the valve opens when the washing machine starts the cycle during our absence. Nothing has changed at the UX level - no fancy settings or touch screens added. The old fashioned dial works as usual. The only difference today is the home senses the state and acts upon it: we are away, the water is shut down to prevent flood. But this does not interfere with usual actions like washing. Smart, ambient assisted living, exactly what I like about the real smart home.