Sensor to "see"when warning light comes on Heat Pump

Devices
1

Hi,

Heres the situation. I have a Nefit Heat Pump in a closet, which isnt very accessible. Occasionally the heat pump with have an error, which causes a red led diode to blink. If I dont know the pump has an issue I usually dont realize the pump isnt running for a number of days, which of course isnt ideal for our heating and cooling in house.

My question… is there a sensor that I can link to Homey which can warn me when the warning light goes on? I considered a webcam, but seems kind of overkill, and I’d still have to check the feed evey once and a while.

Thanks for any suggestions!

2

A DIY solution would be an ESP8266 using ESPEasy, Tasmota or Homeyduino and a photoresistor-type device taped over the LED to detect if it’s lit or not.

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3

Isn’t it better to fix the issue instead of working around it? So fixing the pump that is, it shouldn’t fall into an error at all

4

Agree. But I need to know theres a problem before I can fix it. The manufacturer of the pump maybe should have added a chime/buzzer that sounds when the error occurs, instead of just a flashing light.

Often the error is caused by an issue with the warmth source (my neighborhood shares one huge warmth source), so issues there are outside of my control.

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5

Some devices just have bad error handling, for instance requiring a so-called “pulling of the plug” to get it to continue running again.

6

maybe a sensor for movement and light, you can use the change in Lux value, but be aware that some sensors only do send the Lux value when there is movement detected (like Aqara).

Xiaomi Light Sensor is supported

7

Put a plug with measurement before the pump.
When its in error it will not use power for a long period of time…

8

My heat pump hasn’t been running for weeks now, too warm. No errors though :stuck_out_tongue:

9

Thought about this as well, but the heat pump is a high voltage installation and is hardwired to my electric panel, so this one fell off the list. Thanks for the suggestion!

10

No cool mode on your pump?

11

I have an extra hue motion sensor laying around. I’ll give that a try as a potential solution.

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12

For cooling I have separate aircons (my house doesn’t have underfloor heating/cooling)

13

Thanks for this, knew about arduino, I didnt realize there were wifi focused boards. I’ve just ordered an ESP-12E board with a analog/digital light sensor. This looks promising. Thank you!

14

I got an ESP-12E module and within 20 minutes had it up and running and working. Thanks for the suggestion!

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