Garden fountain pump monitor - simple!

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1

I have a fountain in the garden that has a small pump in it to circulate the water. I’ve long had it on a power switch that turns it on at sunrise and off at dusk. I replaced the smart plug with a cheap SwitchBot Mini from Amazon (reflashed with Tasmota) a while back, and it occurred to me that the plug reports power. So I monitored the power for a few days, and discovered that it draws 36-37 watts. Today I pulled the pump from the water so it ran dry, and then checked the power draw. It was down to 30-31 watts. I put it back in the water and it’s up to 36 watts again.

So I quick created a very simple automation that turns off the pump and notifies us if the fountain runs dry:

alias: Fountain failure
description: >-
  If the fountain is drawing less power than normal (36W-37W) turn it off and
  notify us
trigger:
  - platform: numeric_state
    entity_id: sensor.fountain_energy_power
    for:
      hours: 0
      minutes: 1
      seconds: 0
    above: 10
    below: 33
condition: []
action:
  - type: turn_off
    device_id: 86d10ac589cd11429f03147bc28b2bff
    entity_id: 5b9b9042bdd51bac3ec3b5f60d96f548
    domain: switch
  - service: notify.both_of_us
    data:
      title: Fountain
      message: The fountain is out of water.
mode: single

I like this so much I’m going to monitor our sump pump next.

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2

Creative think. Thanks for sharing, mate.

3

I took the concept one step further. When the fountain is empty it opens a sprinkler valve for a minute (or whatever) and refills it.

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4

I’m always wary of controlling valve for water output. I’d want to make sure to get a notification that it’s going to happen and another when it’s done. You don’t want to have a valve get opened, something crashes and it gets left running. At least with start notifications you’ll be on alert to check for completion.

I’d be more inclined to turn it over to an irrigation controller for a timed watering. That way you get the added babysitting that an irrigation controller might be using to avoid excess run times.

5

That’s a great idea. I can easily set up another “program” in OpenSprinkler that would open a valve for a fixed time, and I already have OpenSprinkler integrated into HA.

Unfortunately, what isn’t easy is adding a zone and valve, as the nearest water source is in the middle of the lawn and under a fenceline away.

So I’m just going to continue to monitor the pump’s power and get alerts, which has been working quite well for the last few years. (I did have to recalibrate it because last year the pump went out and its replacement draws a different amount of power.)

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