Dumb laundry machine solution? (I need to monitor usage - cycles)

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Hey guys,
I have a rental apartment in which i also offer a washing machine.
Although im ok with people using it reasonably, i would like some way to control the usage to avoid excess usage or charge extra if some guest uses it more than once/twice a day.

I was thinking of hooking the machine on a sonoff Pow.

I thought of two solutions:

  • Monitor the power consumption (of the sonoff POW) and figure out how many cycles each guest has performed and including some extra fee in the final price afterwards?
  • Or, one step further, hook up a pushbutton switch on the sonoff pow and power it up for ~2h (or similar) per press, then count the number of activations?

Sonoff pow is rated 16A, should that be enough?
Alternatively on the second solution, (if 16A relay is not recommended) i could power the machine with a circuit breaker rated for more amps and use a sonoff basic with a push button to activate it.

Has anyone encountered a similar issue and could point me out towards a solution?
Or any thoughts would be appreciated.
Thanks!

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The Smartest House folks sell a heavy appliance power montitor plug.

Another option would be a vibration sensor. If you just want to count usages and time running.
For example the Fibaro Motion Sensor includes vibration sensing.

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Should be more than enough. My washing machine consumes at top 250-300W. Dryers are more power hungry, exceeding 2kW.

I use a washing machine notification system by monitoring power usage (smart plug) and a contact sensor for the lid.

Can’t find a easy solution for your case because how are you gonna determine who uses the washing machine? You mentioned several guests.
Unless you want to count an overall usage and average the cost among all guests.

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That’s not an issue, maybe my fault in explaining, there’s only one group that has access to the machine each time.

Why the contact sensor? Isnt the consumption monitoring foolproof?
Plus i would prefer to avoid running cables in the front of the machine, visible to the guests. (people are afraid of cables they dont know and i cant explain to them its just low voltage)

As the rest of the house is not smart yet (and probably wont be) i’d need to use some wifi solution, there is no z-wave capability, nor am i willing to invest in one, in the near future at least.
Any similar wifi solutions?
Or should i stick to one of the two sonoff solutions i mentioned above?

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I implemented this solution Making ‘dumb’ Dishwashers and Washing Machines Smart: Alerts When the Dishes and Clothes Are Cleaned – Phil Hawthorne

First using yaml, then I translated it to nodered.

Basically the notification keeps going on until you go there and pull the clothes out, that’s why the contact sensor.

1 Like
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Ah! so you get a notification when things are done.
That’s very smart (for own use) but, in my case i just want to discourage people from running 10 cycles a day.

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I think the sonoff pow is a good idea. Another approach would be to use vibration sensors to detect when the machine has ended it’s cycle. Like this one:

https://forum.mysensors.org/topic/1617/washing-machine-ended-sensor/2

8

If there is a light that triggers when the machine has ended use a light detector to go over that LED?

I’m in work so can’t find a link at the moment but I got the idea to try out myself from on here somewhere.

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you sure, I doubt it, double check

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In that case you can keep count on how many times the state of the machine goes to clean.
Or you can track total power consumption by the pow for the day, then switch it off. The pow can keep track of the total also.

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I implemented a solution with two Fibaro Wall Plugs. It’s Zwave so not cheap, but you really want the wall plugs to be able to handle the load. The wall plugs measure power usage, cumulative power usage and a couple of other stats. You’re also able to switch the plugs through HA. For automation I created a binary sensor that flips “on” when usage rises above 10W or something and flips “off” when usage drops below 200W for more than two minutes. The automation triggers when the sensor flips to off and sends a push message through Pushbullet. Simple and very effective!

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could you share your automation

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Done this and took one step more if I’m watching kodi it pauses kodi and a message pop up in washing done

- id: '1527120458976'
  alias: Pause Kodi
  trigger:
  - entity_id: sensor.washing_machine_status
    platform: state
    to: Clean
  condition: []
  action:
  - data:
      entity_id: media_player.kodi_main
    service: media_player.media_pause
  - data:
      message: Washing DONE
      title: Home Assistant
    service: notify.main_kodi_message

its keep out of the dog box with the wife
and use this


as my starting pont
1 Like
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Here’s the binary sensor:

- platform: template
  sensors:
    washer_on:
      friendly_name: "Wasmachine aan"
      device_class: power
      delay_on:
        minutes: 2
      delay_off: 
        minutes: 2
      value_template: >
        {{ states('sensor.wall_plug_wasmachine_vermogen')| float > 10 }}
    dryer_on:
      friendly_name: "Droger aan"
      device_class: power
      delay_off:
        minutes: 2
      value_template: >
        {{ states('sensor.wall_plug_droger_vermogen')| float > 400 }}

The “delay_on” is here because of a feature of our washer. We can program the washer to be finished at a certain time (for instance 5 hours from now). Besides that de washer weighs the laundry in order to decide on the amount of water to use and how long a program will run. This is done by doing a couple of rotations of the drum inside. The weighing however is done at the start, so when I program the machine to be finished later it will weigh the laundry and after that sit still for a couple of hours. The weighing takes less than 2 minutes, so that’s why it’s there. Otherwise we would get a false “washer done” notification right after weighing.

And here’s automation:

- alias: "Washer finished"
  trigger:
    - platform: state
      entity_id: binary_sensor.washer_on
      from: "on"
      to: "off"

  action:
    - service: notify.michiel
      data:
        title: Home Assistant - Wasmachine klaar
        message: 'Michiel, de wasmachine is klaar.'

- alias: "Dryer finished"

  trigger:
    - platform: state
      entity_id: binary_sensor.dryer_on
      from: "on"
      to: "off"

  action:
    - service: notify.michiel
      data:
        title: Home Assistant - Droger klaar
        message: 'Michiel, de droger is klaar.'
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15

I would be careful with the “16A” rating on the Sonoff. That is what the relay inside is rated for a resistive load. Washing machines and other motor driven appliances have very large starting current requirements and they fire a transient spike if switched off while running. As long as the relay doesn’t trip when running or try to start when closed, you should be fine. Otherwise expect a very short lifespan on the relay in the switch.

You might want to look at the GE 14284 z-wave switch. It is rated to handle motors, is water resistant, and meets US standards. $33 on Amazon. Works with HomeAssistant.

Don’t know if they still make it but I had one of these that also had an energy monitor included so you could see the power consumption as well.

Personally I wouldn’t want the liability of a switch that doesn’t meet motor switching requirements.

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Tops 330 at the end, in the spinning cycle, but is cold water only. So yes should be maybe 4x times more if using hot water.