Smart relays for water circulating pumps

Hello everyone,

I’m interested in automating my heating system, which currently relies on four water circulating pumps (one for the buffer tank, one for the heat tank, and two for different sections of the house). My goal is to control the operation of these water circulation pumps based on either the temperature of the buffer tank or the time of day.

The power ratings of these water circulation pumps range from 60 to 200 watts. I’ve been researching smart relay options like the Shelly Pro 4PM and the SONOFF 4CHR3. While both of these devices can handle the power requirements, I have concerns about the peak current that occurs when the pumps are turned on.

Does anyone foresee any issues with using such a smart relay in this setup? Can these devices handle the high starting current of the circulation pumps? If they can’t, are there any solutions you could suggest?

Thank you for the help in advance.

What are the specs of the pump? :page_with_curl:

That’s quite a low load and might be worth to ditch mechanical relays in this case and go with solid state relays instead which should (or could) have a much longer lifetime :raised_hands:

Shelly Pro 4PM and the SONOFF 4CHR3 don’t they include solid state relays?

They are out of the shelf pumps and do not include the peak current or power.

I doubt that as they are rated 10/16A which are typical ordinary “clicking” relays. :bulb:

So if they are rated for a max continuous power draw of 200W you could just add 100% to be absolutely sure the actor can handle it. So something rated for ~400-500W (2A @ 230VAC) should get the job done :man_factory_worker:

1 Like